Snow in August
by Fly Kite
Summary: An unfaithful marriage, an unlawful divorce, and an unwanted pregnancy. Elizabeth blindly marries Wickham and suffers from his infidelity. Within the confining walls of a courtroom, she meets Darcy, Wickham’s proud and haughty lawyer. A modern P&P. AU.
1. Flashback

**SNOW IN AUGUST**

**-Illusiional Ice-**

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Disclaimer: There's a reason why this is called the 'disclaimer' and not the 'claimer'. All characters and story plots belong to Jane Austen. I simply twist them with my imagination, cross my fingers, and hope they deliver well.

Warning: As set in the modern era, this fanfiction contains explicit language. If you do not like reading the usages of stronger words, now is a good time to turn back.

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_It happened all too quickly. Too quickly for Elizabeth to even take the time to think, sort, and analyze things for herself. The last couple days had been a blur; one that she recalled very little of. Even when she thought as hard as she could, she conjured up very little. Flashes of memories appeared in her mind's eye, revealing an unfamiliar black pair of pantyhose, a foreign scent of perfume, and a blond haired woman with long lashes and piercing blue eyes. Three images crudely strung together and discovered in the course of a single night. Elizabeth stopped short in her thoughts, only to rewind and play them again._

_Flashback._

_Having caught an earlier flight from New York, she returned home a few hours before she was expected. She glanced at her watch—it was nine thirty. Walking up the stairs to the apartment with her luggage, she fumbled for her keys in her purse, wearily muttering to herself. Finding the key, she stuck it into the lock and turned. When the door swung opened, she was blown away by a mind numbing smell._

_She stood for a few seconds, dumbfounded by the intense wave of perfume she had so unexpectedly breathed in. Her eyes began to water, and she stumbled a few steps backwards before throwing her head up into the deepening night, allowing the cool night breeze to wash over her. When she regained her senses, she walked back to the door, prepared for another ill-fated fragrant attack._

_When she inhaled a second time, she froze. Not only was the smell not cologne, it was not hers. Frowning, she walked into the apartment and closed the door behind her. Just as she was about to call out to George and announce her arrival, the condition of the living room caught her attention and drove away all her thoughts._

_Her jaws dropped at the sight before her. Bags of opened chips were carelessly sprawled out across the table as one bag was tipped over the other, messily spilling out half of its contents. Cans of beer were scattered across the floor, some upright and others knocked over. Two plates of instant meal pasta were on table, one scraped clean and the other still half full._

"_What has he been doing?" she asked herself, shaking her head disapprovingly at her husband's formidable ability to transform everywhere he went into an unwelcoming and disgusting pigsty. How many times did she have to lecture him about cleaning up after himself? A week without a wife and the apartment becomes a filthy place that would have been the target of any health sanitation's agency._

_As she scanned the room for any other unforgivable messes, she opened her mouth to call his name, curious as to why he had not yet come out to greet her. Her mouth froze when her eyes reached the couch. Subsequently, her mind drew a blank._

_Carelessly flung across the arm of the couch was a bright red, long-sleeved sweater. Even from a distance, she could see clusters of tacky sequins on the gaudy sweater shimmer under the dimmed living room lights. As soon as she saw it, she knew it was not hers. What disturbed her even more was the black polo shirt of her husband that lay only a few inches away from the sweater. In great disbelief of the conclusion that her new discovery of evidences offered, she closed her eyes and tried to clear her mind._

"_No," she thought. "He couldn't have. Not George. He must have a valid explanation for all of this."_

_When she opened her eyes and took a deep breath, she walked down the hallway and approached their room. Halfway down the hallway, she froze again. This time, it was a matter of minutes before she could recollect her train of thought and rationality. Lying on the floor before her was a silky black pair of pantyhose, coupled by a pair of bright red pumps. Surging with rage, she stormed down the rest of the hallway, took a quick turn, grabbed the door handle, and turned._

_The door was locked. Why would it be locked? George never bothered to lock doors._

_As waves of realization overtook her stubborn state of denial, Elizabeth put her ears to the door. A moan, a groan, and an unmistakable shift in bed. She stopped, tore herself away from the door, and leaned against the wall for support, breathing heavily. Was she to pound on the door and demand her husband back? Yell at him and administer a direct slap in the face?_

_No, she couldn't. Though she knew very well what was taking placed beyond the locked door, she did not want to see for herself. From what she had heard, it was enough._

_Numbed in all of her senses, she slowly trudged back into the living room before miserably collapsing onto the couch. She was going to wait on the couch with her arms and legs crossed, see that startled reaction on the face of her husband, and allow the entirety of hell to break loose and set free._

_Nearly two hours later, she heard the door opened. She glanced at her watch. It was now twelve thirty, half an hour before she was supposed to be home. She heard whispers in the hallway, unable to clearly make out what was being said. Then, out of nowhere, a shy giggle of a woman feebly echoed the hall and was soon answered by George's deep chuckle. As footsteps neared the living room, Elizabeth prepared herself._

_George emerged alongside a blond woman. Although Elizabeth hated to admit it, the woman was regrettably more beautiful than her, with features more delicate and refined. As George entered the living room, his eyes froze at Elizabeth's image, and his jaws promptly fell agape. He stood, flabbergasted and shocked. Elizabeth crossed her arms, pursed her lips, and waited for him to speak. The woman glanced anxiously between them and observed their reactions before deciding to remain silent._

"_Lizzy? Why—why are you here?" he stammered, averting his gaze._

"_I am here because this is my home," Elizabeth brusquely replied as she loudly emphasized the last four words, glaring at the man before her._

_George felt as though his wife's relentless glare was going to burn a hole right through his body. He silently stood, unsure of what to say._

_Turning to the woman, Elizabeth addressed her._

"_I see we haven't met before. I also see that you have recollected your pantyhose and shoes. I now suggest that you walk right over here and get your sweater as well. Lastly, I kindly advise you to never wear whatever perfume it is you're wearing right now. Quite frankly, the smell is atrocious. Therefore, it'd be best that you leave and spread your nauseating fragrance elsewhere."_

_The woman goggled at Elizabeth before looking to George for some sort of defense. Noticing the woman's silent plea for George's help, Elizabeth sneered when she saw her husband's inanimate reaction._

"_Are you going to say something, George? Defend her, perhaps? If not, tell her to get out of my house," Elizabeth coldly said, throwing a disgusted look at her husband._

_After a few moments of hesitation, George turned to the woman and spoke to her._

"_Denise, I think you should leave now. I'll take care of it."_

_The woman slowly nodded and grabbed her sweater before walking out the door. Once the door clicked shut, Elizabeth stood up from her seat, walked up to her husband, and glowered at him._

"_Explain yourself," she spat, drawing herself up to her full height._

"_It's not what it looks like, Lizzy."_

"_Then what is it supposed to look like?" she shot back at him, even angrier now at his lack of explanation. Obviously he had been caught off guard and didn't even have the decency to have such affairs in discreet conduct._

"_She doesn't mean anything to me, I swear. She's just—oh Lizzy, you've been away at Jane's for a week. I needed to—"_

"_Satisfy your desires? Fulfill your secret fantasies? Hire a prostitute? If you think you can convince me with what you've just said, think again."_

"_We all make mistakes, Lizzy. She's nothing to me. We didn't even do anything. I'm sorry. I love you, Liz," he halfheartedly said, taking a step closer to her._

_Elizabeth took a giant step away from her husband as she pointed her finger at him, her body quivering with anger._

"_You—guys—didn't—do—anything?" she screeched, waves of hot rage coursing throughout her body. "Don't you dare say that you love me. A sweater the couch? A pair of pantyhose and shoes lying on the floor? What do you take me for? Some brainless idiot living in a world of denial and stupidity?"_

"_Elizabeth, you know I would never do anything to hurt you."_

_Elizabeth threw her head up and laughed derisively at the statement._

"_Oh, and what a brave and dignified proclamation. You, of all people, would never hurt me?" she hysterically cried. "Not only do you take me for some dim-witted fool, you tell me that none of this was supposed to hurt me? I heard everything that went on in that bedroom, George. Don't pretend like nothing happened. You're fooling no one."_

_George stared at Elizabeth in disbelief that she had actually heard them in the room. Elizabeth ignored his silent response and continued._

"_Don't even bother explaining because I don't need to hear it. Everything that's happened tonight—everything I've seen, heard, and to my greatest misfortune, even smelled, has told me everything. Save yourself the trouble because you're moving out," she coolly said, trying with all her might to contain her anger._

"_You have no right to kick me out of this house," he automatically responded, determinedly crossing his arms._

"_Oh, so I see you've finally decided to talk. You offer me no explanations and stand there like some pathetic little wooden doll. The only time you bother to answer me is when I tell you to get out of my house. Well George, see if you can find anything else to defend yourself with. Because tonight, or any more nights, for that matter, you're not sleeping here."_

"_I am your husband, and you are my wife. I'm staying—and there's no changing that," he finished, the tone of his voice tensing uneasily._

_Elizabeth's anger surged through her body and right out of her mouth. She scathingly glared at her husband and cried, "I am no wife of yours. From this day on, I am Elizabeth Bennet."_

_George approached Elizabeth, smashed her against him, and kissed her. Elizabeth immediately resisted him, pulled away, and delivered a sharp slap to his face. George automatically recoiled, touching his reddening cheek as he angrily flashed a glare at her._

"_How dare you? No wife of mine will ever slap me," he said through gritted teeth, raising his own hand now._

"_Let me repeat myself. I—am—not—your—wife," she yelled, her voice cracking in response to her angry and heated temper._

"_I am not your wife, and above all else, I will NOT be your whore," she finished, picking up an empty beer can on the ground. Aiming at George, she swung her arm back and chucked it at him. He dodged, and the can hit the floor with a loud clang._

_A heated silence passed between them. Elizabeth bit back her tears and turned to look him in the eye._

"_How long?" she asked with a wavering voice._

"_What do you mean by how long?"_

"_You know exactly what I mean."_

_A short silence followed before a response._

"_Two months."_

_Tears welled up in Elizabeth's eyes and her body shook with emotions. Two months? They had been together for two months and she had not a clue. Perhaps he had been discreet after all. Having never been so disgusted and repulsed in her life, she furiously glared at her husband._

"_Get out," she cried, pointing at the door. "Get out, get out, get out!"_

_Picking up all the cans on the ground, she mustered all of her strength and threw them at him, one after another. Some found their target while others crashed loudly to the floor._

"_You unappreciative little bitch. I work, provide, and feed you. Fine—I'll leave. You have no job, no connections, no money. So go ahead, starve to death. Or better yet, try making yourself useful for a change."_

_His last accusation rang loudly in Elizabeth's ears. She looked and stared straight back at him. Elizabeth was without job and had been for the six months that they had been married. She lost her previous job as a secretary after her company reportedly went bankrupt and was forced to close. Tough luck, she knew. And during a time when the economy fared poorly, it was hard to find another job that was hiring and offering to pay a decent amount of money. All this time that she had been without a job, that was what George thought she was? Some useless git whose only purpose in life was to be a burden for her husband? Was this why he decided to cheat on her?_

"_Get out," she ordered with narrowed eyes. "Now, or I'm calling the police."_

"_Fine, but once I step foot out of this door, you're on your own. And I mean it," he spat and returned her glare, grabbing a coat from the closet before walking to the door. "I'll be back tomorrow to get my things."_

_And that was how it ended. He came back, grabbed his things, and left. Elizabeth sat by the window sill, glancing outside. The rain pattered on the roof, tapping out its own unique rhythm and dance. It was cloudy outside, and a light fog was settling alongside a setting sun. A stricken tear rolled down her face. Of all the people in the world, she never would have expected it to happen to her. She never once suspected George to be capable of infidelity. But then again, when can one ever be sure of another's true character?_

_She continued to stare out the window, allowing the beating of the rain outside to numb her thoughts, her feelings, and her senses. She looked out the window, wondering what he was doing at the moment, and how he was getting along with that woman named Denise._

_She sat there, a couple hours longer with tears pouring down her face, the divorce papers clutched firmly in her hand._

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	2. A New Life

a/n: I decided to give a bit more of a background of the story. Thanks to all who took the time to review. Enjoy!

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Sunlight brightly poured through the thinly layered curtains of the room and settled onto her face. Elizabeth groaned in annoyance as she attempted to shift her face away from the blinding light. Half asleep, she moved her right hand up to cover her face, silently reprimanding herself for not having bought heavier drapes that would have saved her from the penetrating rays. She let out a second groan, this time throwing the blanket over her head as she tried to doze off again. She snuggled under the warm and cozy covers that shielded her from early December's chilly weather. She curled into a comfortable position, closed her eyes, let out a content sigh, and—

The cacophonous ring of her alarm clock met her ears. Convinced that the entire world was working against her efforts to getting more sleep, Elizabeth threw her covers up in defeat. Irritated and still half in slumber, she clumsily waved a hand around, fumbling for the button to turn off the obnoxious clock. Needless to say, she had never liked the clock. But for someone who'd literally have to be dragged out of bed otherwise, such was the necessity.

Sleepily, she rubbed her eyes, yawned, and lackadaisically stretched. She got up and pulled the curtains open. Sunlight streamed in magnificently, chasing away every dark corner in the room. Squinting in the bright sunlight, she looked outside of the window.

It was a beautiful day—something she had not bothered to appreciate for quite a while. After George moved out, everything had been going downhill as Elizabeth found her life to be quickly unraveling itself. Everything swiftly untangled in disarray and was promptly expelled and driven out of her life. Even after their separation, George had left Elizabeth with a mindful of mounding worries. Elizabeth propped herself up on the bed and was soon immersed in her own thoughts.

If there was one thing she regretted more than marrying George in the first place, it was her prolonged actions to file for divorce. Although the eventual outcome of the marriage was obvious, Elizabeth had difficulty accepting the fact. That she had been heartlessly betrayed by her own husband was a memory that refused to leave her. Elizabeth was surprised at her own reluctance of letting go. Holding on to something that'd sporadically turned against her was unlike her character. In her stubborn and rash disposition, she would have deserted it without a second thought and put it right behind her. But this time, a love and a broken heart was involved, and who knew how long that would take to heal. In her foolish choice to drag out the marriage, she had given George time to act on his part. By the time she had actually filed for divorce and waited for a hearing in court, it was too late.

Knowing that his wife would end up filing for divorce, George lost little time and hurriedly sold his marketing business for a small amount of money. He was more than aware that divorce carried along the prospect of dividing property. He certainly was not going to let the court divide up _his _money with Elizabeth. If anyone was going to get out of the situation with the most advantageous outcome, he was. Therefore, he sold his business to a close partner on the terms that the business would be returned to him after the divorce was finalized. In the meanwhile, he could tell the court that he was without a job and not have to deal with the terms of spousal support. Whatever happened to Elizabeth Bennet, he had not a care in the world. Besides, it wasn't as if he married her for love in first place; there was something else he wanted from the marriage. Something he would get a particularly qualified lawyer to attain.

After Elizabeth received the news, she knew that she was going to receive little money from their property. And that was why, for the first time in her life, money actually mattered. It wasn't that Elizabeth never recognized the importance of money or failed to develop an appreciation for it; it was that Elizabeth never thought that money would ever become the most important aspect in her life. In short, Elizabeth Bennet found herself virtually penniless.

Unlike most women in the modern era hopelessly infatuated with the material world, marrying for money never once crossed her mind. Although George's income was only average, it never bothered her. All that mattered was what she had felt for him, that love and trust she'd given him so easily—too easily. Looking back, it was ridiculous how easily she had given in to his charms. She willingly married him after knowing him for the short span of four months, and remained married for a mere six months, two of which spent in infidelity. Altogether, they hadn't even lasted a year.

'_So much for Disney's little crowd of giddy princesses with their prince charmings,'_ she bitterly thought. _'Because in reality, love sucks. There is no once upon a time; no happily ever after. And the greatest mistake one could ever make in life was to naively indulge oneself in love.'_

Elizabeth withdrew herself from her thoughts, sighed, and glanced at the clock. It was almost nine. Her job interview was in an hour and half. She pushed herself off the bed and set off to getting ready.

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Elizabeth walked in the heavily trafficked streets of Los Angeles. The cars were crammed alongside each other, bumper to bumper, as L.A.'s infamous rate of traffic congestion spurred the chain of frustrated honks and curses from impatient drivers. Dressed in a simple white blouse and a black skirt, Elizabeth walked slowly as butterflies flew wildly in her stomach.

Alongside her was Charlotte, her best friend who worked as a business negotiator in the advertising company called Ad-Genesis. As soon as Charlotte heard of an opening position as a secretary in the company, she urged Elizabeth to apply. After her application had been reviewed, Elizabeth was asked to attend an interview for a check on final qualifications.

"Do you think they'll like me?" she asked, nervously wringing her hands as the building approached them.

"There's no reason for them not to," Charlotte reassured, gently patting Elizabeth on her shoulder.

"I hope I get the job—I really need it," Elizabeth wearily said, her mind trailing to George's incorrigible deeds.

"I know," Charlotte sympathetically responded, well aware of what George had done. "Let's just cross our fingers and hope that his partner's as cruel as he is. Maybe he won't end up getting the business back. I mean, it's not like they're under contract or anything," Charlotte thoughtfully continued.

Elizabeth sighed, frustration rising at the thought of her ex.

"Don't think about it, Liz. It's not going to help your day. Besides, that man isn't worth half a penny of your thoughts. Just calm yourself down, walk in, and be yourself—they'll love you," she comfortingly finished, giving her friend a quick sideway hug.

"Thanks Char." Elizabeth sighed with a slight smile as they both stopped in front of a towering building.

The building stood about twenty stories high, its structure reasonably new and its construction modern. There was a hint of grandeur and elegance about its appearance, though whether it was the black marbled structure or the clean layout of the building, Elizabeth could not differ. At the front of the building, silver letters above the entrance spelled out 'Ad-Genesis', and Elizabeth found herself in front of a rotating door.

Elizabeth and Charlotte pushed through the door and stepped into the building. To the right of the door was the receptionist's desk. The girl who sat behind it kindly smiled at them. She looked like she was in her early twenties, with blond hair and light blue eyes, coupled by a disposition that was both charming yet shy. A friendly aura settled around her, and her gentle appearance reminded Elizabeth of Jane. A little plaque on the desk read 'Georgiana Whiting'.

"Good morning, Charlotte," she said, her voice light and cheerful. "Is this Miss Bennet? Mr. Fitzwilliam is upstairs waiting for her."

"Morning, Gia. I'll bring her right up," Charlotte said with a quick smile and a wave.

Following Charlotte, Elizabeth glanced around her. The entrance hall was of generous spacing, its floor covered with black marble. They took a few twists and turns before arriving at the elevator. Once inside, nods and salutations were exchanged as Charlotte greeted her coworkers. One by one, the elevator began to empty out. Elizabeth looked at the buttons and saw that they were destined for the highest floor. When the last two occupants finally arrived, Charlotte led Elizabeth through a couple more hallways. At last, they stopped in front of a wooden door with a name plague on it that read 'Sean Fitzwilliam: Senior Director'.

Charlotte encouragingly squeezed Elizabeth's hand before walking away, leaving Elizabeth timidly standing alone in front of the door. Just as she slowly brought her hand up to knock, it swung widely opened. Elizabeth let out a surprised gasp as the door revealed a good-humored man with light brown hair and twinkling green eyes friendly smiling at her.

"And you must be Elizabeth Bennet. I'm Sean Fitzwilliam," he light-heartedly said, amiably sticking out his hand. "I'm sorry if I startled you a moment ago, but ever since my office moved to the highest floor, I've been a bit more anxious for visitors. I used to be on the tenth floor, you know. For some reason, people don't bother coming up to see me as much," he shrugged, "Pity, because I find it hard to work by myself in solitary confinement."

She took his hand and shook it. Elizabeth could not help but smile and allow some of her tension to ease away.

"Please, have a seat," he said, pointing to a chair across the desk as he took his own. Elizabeth sat down and looked expectantly at the man.

"I've reviewed your résumé, and it looks really good," he said, his eyes approvingly scanning the document. "Of course, I'm interviewing you just to make sure that you're not some kind of fraud. Moreover, I'd like to get to know your personality a bit better. I'd hate to have some emo person turn up for work to design the image of my business logo. I don't think skulls and crossbones are the best way to attract consumers," he finished with an wistful grin, as if what he said had actually happened once.

Elizabeth gave a small chuckle.

"So, Elizabeth, tell me a little bit about yourself."

Upon seeing her slight hesitation, Sean flashed a smile and said, "Don't worry, I'm not going to eat, bite, or judge you. Let's see, maybe I should give you a more straightforward question. What makes you qualified for this position?"

Elizabeth sat, frozen in her seat. She hated it when her usual outgoing manner backed out on her and left her in an awkward state without words. "I—err—I," she stammered, angry at herself for not being able to answer such an easy question. She paused, cleared her throat, and attempted to answer again.

"I do whatever I can to the best of my ability and complete any task set before me. My determined personality makes it all the more important for me to presevere."

She sat in her seat, anxious for his response. Sean narrowly eyed her and found an earnest pair of hazel eyes looking back at him.

"So, you are hard worker. Few people take inconvenient turns out of their way to complete their jobs. Tell me then, to what measures are you willing to take in order to finish a duty before you?" he questioned, curious to see how she would answer.

"To measures that fully cover the entirety of my best attempts and abilities, Sir," she responded without a pause, more relaxed now that her usual quick reflex to answering questions had returned to her.

"Good, you are exactly the kind of person I need to be my personal secretary. Congrats—you got the job," he happily said, taking out a couple pieces of documents. "I need you to read the terms and sign at the bottom," he finished, evidently satisfied with his new employee.

"Thank you so much, Mr. Fitzwilliam," Elizabeth excitedly said, trying to conceal the silly grin on her face. She read the list of terms and happily signed her name on the bottom. The name Elizabeth Bennet had never looked better.

"Let's see—today's Thursday, so that means I'd like to have you start on Monday. When you come to work, meet Georgiana, the receptionist downstairs, and she will tell you everything you need to know. Since you will be working as my secretary, I'll be seeing a lot of you. Therefore, I hope I haven't scared or intimidated you in any way," he finished with another smile.

"No, you haven't. Thank you again so much, Sir. You have no idea how happy I am to work here," Elizabeth politely responded as she rose from her seat and prepared to leave the room.

"Do you know your way out?" he inquired. "For some reason, these architects decided to go and design this building like some kind of maze. You have no idea the amount of pain it took to learn my way around."

If there was one thing Elizabeth learned that day, it was that her new boss loved to talk and often went off on his own tangents. She found it difficult to match his teasing and easy going nature with his superior position as the head of the company. For such a big company, she would have expected its proprietor to be strict and imposing. To her great surprise, she found him to be quite the opposite. Elizabeth knew she would have no problems getting along with him.

Not wanting to inconvenience Sean in any way, Elizabeth responded, "Oh, I think I will manage," before politely saying good bye and stepping out of the room.

Once the door closed behind her, Elizabeth pranced down the hallway as she began her quest for locating the elevator. She hardly noticed that it took her a near ten minutes to find it, for she was beyond relief that she'd finally found a way to financially support herself.

Once she was in the elevator, she called Charlotte, and her ears were met with an ear-piercing squeal on the other line. Elizabeth left the office building, feeling refreshed and renewed. This was going to be the start of her new life.

Returning home, Elizabeth decided to relax and enjoy the rest of the day. She had a feeling that tomorrow was going to be a different story. For tomorrow, she was going to have her first hearing in court.

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a/n: thoughts, comments, suggestions? please review for a faster update. next chapter, she'll be meeting the infamous will darcy.


	3. Inheritance

Enter Fitzwilliam Darcy. Six feet tall, broad-shouldered, dark brown hair, and a pair of light blue eyes. His face was lined with defining features of masculinity, though it was edged with a bit of boyish pertinence. He stood with a becoming posture flattered by his height, long and lanky legs adjoining a well-toned body, and a striking face. Simply put, he was the kind of man any woman would kill to have. Though despite his flawless exposition, he would have looked much more handsome if it weren't for the haughty look that clung onto his face and the hint of arrogance that clouded his presence. To Elizabeth's dismay, she could actually have been interested in him had he not been George's lawyer. To her even greater dismay, her own lawyer was quite possibly the most absurd looking man she had ever seen in her life.

Mr. William Collins was his name. To say he looked odd would be a major understatement. Standing barely over five feet tall, his head was too big, his body too small, and his eyes bulged too much out of their sockets. Below his sunken forehead was a pair of thick and heavy eyebrows. His lips were decent, though the nose that hung above it was rather large and crooked. His cheekbones were too high up, and his chin was set too low. Although his physical attributes ought to be pitied as fate chose not to grant him a decent form, Elizabeth found his appearance to be rather comical. A description far from the stretches of hyperbole, he looked like the offspring of a Saki monkey minus the hair and apelike behavior.

As Elizabeth took her seat in the courtroom, she wondered how the court had managed to find a man like him. Since she had no money to hire lawyer, the court provided her with one just as the U.S. Constitution had promised. However, as touched as she was by the Founding Fathers and their rivulets of allocated rights, a court session without the presence of Mr. Collins would have been like one's admission to heaven. It wasn't just his bizarre appearance that bugged Elizabeth; it was his pompous and overly flamboyant manner. The way he talked, walked, and moved made him the epitome of an anachronistic character stuck in the wrong era. Why he was in the twenty first century instead of the seventeenth, she will never know.

As the door opened and the judge entered the room, Elizabeth drew her attentions from Mr. Collins and settled her gaze on the adjudicator.

"This court will now come to order," the judge announced as the sound of the gavel colliding against solid wood echoed throughout the room. "It is in my knowledge that a divorce under marital infidelity has been filed from Mrs. Elizabeth Bennet Wickham to her husband George Wickham. Is this true?" he questioned, eyeing both Elizabeth and George. The two nodded in unison.

The judge continued to state the conditions and terms the divorced was filed against. Elizabeth listened with a heavy frown on her face, greatly disheartened by the nonchalant manner of George. Every time she ventured a glance over, George sat firmly in his seat, idly staring at the podium of the judge. He didn't seem to care the least bit about the divorce and exhibited no remorse over his actions. He simply sat in the chair, nodding every now and then as he quietly conversed with the stern-faced lawyer beside him.

Soon enough, the judge touched on the lines regarding the couple's division of property.

"The division of property must be implemented to ensure that both sides of the party receive the same amount of money."

As soon as the judge stated the lines of property division, George spoke up.

"Your Honor, do you mean that each and every bank account we share must be divided evenly so that none can be exploited from their rights to money?"

"Yes, Mr. Wickham. Each and every banking account."

George's face broke into a slight smirk as his countenance reflected a slight hint of glorious victory. Elizabeth caught his look and anxiety surged within her as she desperately wanted to know exactly what he was after. She got her answer soon enough as George's lawyer spoke for the first time, his voice deep and rich, booming and echoing loudly throughout the room.

"There is a particular account Elizabeth shares with her husband that none have withdrawn money from or touched since their marriage. I will see to it that this account's contents are rightfully divided as well, no matter what the other party's arguments and negotiations may be."

Elizabeth's eyes widened and her jaws dropped. She couldn't believe it. George was after her inheritance. Her father had died a year ago, leaving her in his will a sum of forty thousand dollars. Although her mother was still alive, he entrusted the money to Elizabeth for he had no trust for his wife's uses of money. Forty thousand dollars, he believed, would be enough to help his then single daughter through life until she found a suitable job. As long as his dearest daughter's future had been financially taken care of, he would feel more at ease with leaving the rest of his fortune to be squandered with his wife.

Save Elizabeth, none of her sisters received a single penny from their father.

Although she knew that giving money to either Lydia or Kitty would be equivalent to flushing a stack of Benjamin Franklins down the toilet, she didn't know why neither Jane nor Mary had been given any share. Thinking of the chaos that could ensue if word got out about her father's favoritism, Elizabeth had kept her inheritance quiet and never mentioned it to anybody—anybody except George. Still getting over the loss of her father, Elizabeth had met George through a college friend and he charmingly sought to wipe away her worries. She confided in him a list of all her troubles and told him all about her impediment surrounding the inheritance. And now, he was going to use the last thing her father had left her against her. The money she tried so hard to save and leave untouched in memory of her father's last expressions of protective love and affections.

"Your Honor, that money belongs to me. It was entitled to me by and from my father—an inheritance he left for me shortly before his death. George has no right to the money, for nowhere on my father's will was his name visible," she spoke, steadying her voice after a couple words, determined to maintain ownership of her bequest.

The judge exchanged a glance between the two parties.

"Further investigations will be taken to find the validity of your statements, Elizabeth. If you speak the truth that the account contains money from your father's will, we will review the division of this piece of property on a separate note," the judge concluded, flipping through a couple documents on his platform.

"If you would please, your Honor, investigate the validity of my claims as well. Ever since they married, their banking accounts have been merged under both names—including the one afore mentioned. As long as George's name is on that particular account, he has as much right to the money as she does," said Darcy as he spoke in a plain but solemn tone, eyeing Elizabeth with a triumphant gleam in his eyes.

"Names have little effect under the power of one's will. To violate that would be to tarnish and disrespect the memory of the dead. Surely this system of ruling brings justice even to those who are no longer with us," she shot back, setting a firm look on the judge.

"Elizabeth, this issue is closed until investigations to your claims have been completed. Your divorce progressions will proceed and this court is adjourned until December 18th, two weeks from today. You are excused," the judge finished with a clack of his gavel.

As he resumed to packing things into his briefcase, Elizabeth narrowed her eyes and glared at Darcy. So that was why George bothered to hire a such an expensive lawyer. He wanted half the money for himself.

_'Wishful thinking, George-not going to happen.'_

She was going to do whatever she could to hold on to what was rightfully hers. She glanced at her inanimate lawyer who'd sat through the entire trial without emitting so much as a single peep. Turning her gaze from his absurd looking profile, she stared back at George's lawyer with an indomitable look that was going to settle everything he planned on using against her. Their gaze met briefly before he looked away and began conversing with his client.

Elizabeth got up from her seat and coolly addressed her lawyer.

"Thank you so much for your time, Mr. Collins. You have helped me _so_ much thus far by expressing your views and defenses," she finished with a sarcastic catch.

To her surprise and disgust, her lawyer responded as if he had taken in her last statement as a flattering compliment.

"It is my pleasure, Elizabeth, to always provide my client with the best of all proceedings. I look forward to meeting you here again in two weeks. Feel free to ask me for anything you need. I will always be of great service to you at the ready," he returned with a crooked smile and hasty handshake. Soon after, he packed his things and left the room, leaving Elizabeth by herself. She walked out of the room and heard around the corner a conversation between George and his lawyer.

"Thank you, Mr. Darcy. I'll be seeing you in two weeks. If you'll excuse me, I have to go. I've got someone to meet," George said.

Footsteps diminished from the hallway as they exited the building. As Elizabeth made her way out, she couldn't help but allow a rapidly mounting dislike grow for George's lawyer. It was one thing to aid his client in court, but another to carry such terms out of court and insult her name then.

_"What a low and revolting thing to do_," she thought angrily.

Even if she ended up not getting a single penny over her inheritance, Elizabeth was determined to wreak havoc on that lawyer's ego and flatten it to something unimaginable. She held little respect for people who possessed no sense of morality. For a lawyer held in as high as a regard as he, she would have expected a better sense of justification from him. She scoffed at the irony that a man whose job was to seek justice would agree to argue a case built around fallacy and indecent scheme. That Fitzwilliam Darcy was not going to leave the court without a taste of her wits and arguments.

As Elizabeth arrived home, she decided not to dwell on the day any longer. She would soon have to shift her focus to her new job and concentrate on that instead. Until the next hearing in court, she resolved not to waste a single second of her time thinking about her ex-husband and his incorrigible lawyer.


	4. The Mark of Union

a/n: Before you read, I have a couple important things I would like to address:

-For those of you confused with the character of Sean Fitzwilliam, he is Colonel Fitzwilliam. Consequently, Georgiana is married. But you'll learn more about that later.

-A couple of reviewers have mentioned that this story closely resembles another story being posted on FF. However, I would like to say that I have never read that story before, so please don't feel like I'm copying another author's story plot. Although a reviewer has told me the name of the story and its author, I am not going to read that story until after this story reaches completion. I'm not going to let that story influence the writing of this one.

Many thanks for previous reviews, and I hope you enjoy this chapter!

* * *

The telephone rang. Elizabeth let it ring a couple more times, not wanting to pick up another sympathetic phone call asking after her divorce. She'd only told a few close friends and was surprised at how the news spread like wildfire. She suspected that George had gone blathering on his part. _'Well, if that's what all these people have to live on—the misfortunes and gossips of other people's lives—it is I who should pity them.'_ Thankfully, the news had yet to spread to her mother's ears across the states in Tennessee. She'll tell her the news—eventually. She glared at the telephone as it made its last sonorous ring. It was only seven. Who'd be calling so early in the morning? _'Whatever, the answering machine will get it.'_

And it did. But at the sound of the tone, Elizabeth's ears were met with a voice she'd long to talk to. Scurrying over, she hastily picked up the phone and answered it. It was Jane.

"Lizzy, what's wrong? What happened with you and George? All I got was a quick message. Oh, I knew I should have bought that international cell phone card in France. I'm so sorry that you couldn't reach me for the last two weeks or so. Mr. Bingley asked me to go on a business trip," came the tired voice stricken with worry.

A business negotiator, Jane worked for Charles Bingley's electronics company. Although she didn't quite have the spunk or insisting disposition of Elizabeth, her calm appearance and gentle patience was often the key to settling down a frenzied client. Once in a while, Charles would send her to other countries to negotiate particularly difficult deals. Elizabeth was surprised at Jane's talent of setting deals, for she had always been rather submissive and quiet growing up. But Jane was special—she had her own way of getting other people to listen.

"It's okay, Jane. I thought about emailing you, but I concluded that it'd be better if I broke the news to you in person."

"What news?" Jane asked, her voice lined with curiosity.

Elizabeth sighed before telling her sister the news that would send Jane's usual calmness into disarray.

"We're getting divorced."

A gasp and a startling silence hung on Jane's side of the line.

"I'll explain," said Elizabeth, wearily rubbing her forehead as she explained in everything that happened on the night of her discovery.

Silence continued to lengthen on Jane's side as she listened to her sister's story without a break or interruption. When Elizabeth was finally done, Jane sat as stiffly in her chair, transfixed with utter shock.

"He—he—George did _all_ that?" Jane asked with incredulity. "He always seemed so—so—unlike someone who would do that," she continued to stammer as everything Elizabeth told her slowly sank into her.

"I thought so too. But evidently, we're both very mistaken," answered Elizabeth.

"Does Mama know about all of this? She'd go crazy if she found out," Jane said with a troubled tone.

"No, she doesn't. I'll tell her—but I wanted you to be the first one to know in the family. I'll tell Mary later. As for Kitty and Lydia, they'd hardly care. It'd be more like gossip and excitement for them, anyways," Elizabeth shrugged and rolled her eyes before a sudden realization dawned upon her.

She had to tell Jane about what happened in court—everything concerning the inheritance. She'd planned on telling Jane eventually, but she never did figure out a way to say it. Now, Jane had unexpectedly called her, and undoubtedly, the conversation would lead to matters in court. Elizabeth frowned and closed her eyes, trying to stifle a groan. Why did things always have to come at her when she was the least prepared?

"Jane, I have to tell you something," Elizabeth found herself saying in a soft voice.

"Anything, Lizzy," she answered as normally as she could, growing unnerved at her sister's unusual softness.

"Promise me you won't get mad at me and leave me? Promise me you won't hate me forever?"

Across the line, Jane grew tense as she heard the rare vulnerability in her sister's voice. Elizabeth sounded like a frightened child seeking solace from her parents after a waking up from a nightmare. Elizabeth never sounded like that. She'd always been the confident and fierce one.

"I promise, Lizzy. I'll never leave you—ever. We're sisters, remember? We stick by each other," Jane's gentle reassurance came, as she wondered at what Elizabeth had to tell her.

"You promise?"

"I swear."

Elizabeth nodded to herself. Jane would have to know sooner or later.

"Remember when Papa died?"

"Yes, and regrettably, it is something I won't forget for the rest of my life."

"Well, when he died, he left me a—an inheritance," she paused. She heard Jane hesitatingly start a sentence, but found it best not to interrupt. "He gave me forty thousand dollars to help me financially. My job was unstable then, and he wanted to see me well. It was left to me in his will. This part of his will was privately written for my eyes only. I'm so sorry for not telling you earlier—I was afraid that—"

"That I would get jealous of you? Lizzy, if there's one thing I'm disappointed about, it's not the fact that I didn't get any money from Papa. It's that you assumed I would get jealous over Papa's obvious preference over you. Am I really the kind of person to do that? If so, I would have been spiteful towards you long ago."

Elizabeth felt both relieved and uneasy. She was relieved that her worst worries were over—Jane wasn't going to be jealous over their father's preference. However, she was uneasy and even felt shameful about overlooking the best qualities in Jane's character. Jane was not one to find faults in people or one to contribute to the pessimism in the world. If the world toppled over and Chicken Little's warnings became a reality, Jane would gladly list a plethora of good reasons pertaining to the ending of the world.

"I'm sorry for not telling you earlier. Papa said in his will not to tell; to take the money in privacy. Who knows what would have happened if Kitty or Lydia found out. But now you know, and just—don't tell anyone else. I'm really sorry. I was just being cautious. Papa's death caused enough problems in the family. I was afraid to lose you. I needed you so much then, and I need you so much now," said Elizabeth, disappointed at her self for not seeing the eventual outcome of Jane's gracious acceptance to the truth earlier.

"Lizzy, you know you can always tell me things. When have I ever violated your trust? I'm here for you, Liz, just don't count me out, okay?" asked Jane with an understanding tone.

Elizabeth sighed happily; she could always count on Jane for warmth and support. After a few moments, she spoke again; this time with a strained voice.

"George wants it, Jane."

She recounted the details in court and the efforts he and his lawyer were willing to take to accomplish the means. Jane resumed her silence and listened, aghast at the actions of her brother-in-law.

"Elizabeth, he can't have it! Fire that stupid lawyer of yours and hire a new one! If money's a problem, I'll give you some!" said a very exasperated Jane at the end of the explanation.

Although Elizabeth knew that changing lawyers would be impossible, she was comforted by Jane's angered tone. Aside from her sister's inability to be find fault in people, she was glad that Jane had nothing sympathetically defensive to say for her ape of a lawyer.

"I can't change lawyers, Jane. I've signed the contract already. Who knew the court would give me such a ridiculous man? I swear, I'm going to take a picture of him and send it to you. He's disgusting. And if you dare say anything about him looking decent in the least bit, I'm going to carefully scrutinize every man you will ever date in your entire life. You know, I can't have my sister scoping out men with a severe lack of good taste."

Jane laughed. She wondered how Mr. Collins's managed to drive her sister's nerves so crazy. Although she didn't want to tell Elizabeth of her own love life during the moment of her divorce, she was pretty sure that her feelings for Mr. Bingley proved that she was a woman with sensible taste.

The two sisters conversed for another half hour before Elizabeth declared that she needed to head to work. Upon hanging up, Elizabeth felt an unexpected whirl of nausea attack her mind and senses. She stumbled when she got up and leaned on the wall for support, breathing heavily. Her stomach flip-flop and she ran into the bathroom, reaching the toilet just as the contents of her breakfast promptly expelled themselves. _'Great. Of all things, I have to go to my first day of work sick.'_

* * *

Elizabeth pushed through the doors and stepped onto the black marbled floor. The sudden sickness had not gone away entirely, although her head no longer pounded and her dizziness subsided reasonably. 

"Elizabeth! Good morning!" a charismatic Sean greeted her at the receptionist's desk.

"Mr. Fitzwilliam, nice to see you again," said Elizabeth, hurrying over to shake his hand. Next to him, the beaming receptionist friendly smiled at her.

"Hi, I'm Georgiana Whiting. You can call me Gia," the young woman shyly said, subsequently offering her hand to Elizabeth.

"You'll be working closely with Gia as both of you are secretaries for this company. You, in particular, Elizabeth, will be my personal secretary. You'll keep track of my meetings, events, luncheons, and appointments. When you're not busily occupied with my personal life, you will be helping Gia handle some paperwork for the company. Capiche?" Sean questioned after Elizabeth and Gia finished shaking hands.

"Yes Sir," Elizabeth answered.

"Good. If you'll excuse me, I have to go now," he said, turning around. Before he left, however, he winked at Georgiana. "Take care of her, Gia. My life's details are in her hands."

Georgiana giggled and nodded. As soon as Sean left, Georgiana began handing Elizabeth a stack of papers and an electronic planner in silence. After a couple moments, Georgiana decided to break the quietness that loomed between them.

"I don't mean to appear cold or anything, but I'm not quite so good at starting conversations. I don't even know why Sean put me in this position, although I suspect that my brother insisted on it. My brother's very keen on making me more outgoing than I really am," she said, shyly casting a glance at Elizabeth.

"Don't worry; my first impression of you was far from cold. I don't blame you for being quiet around people you don't really know," Elizabeth replied, observing the character of her new co-worker. Elizabeth found Georgiana to be very similar to Jane, gentle and kind in both appearance and temperament.

"Sean's my cousin, by the way. He's in charge of most things that happen around here, even though he's not the boss," Georgiana continued as she straightened out the final stack of paper.

"I must be wrong then, because I thought Mr. Fitzwilliam owned the company," Elizabeth responded, quite puzzled to her new piece of knowledge. She remembered reading the plague in front of his office that hailed him as the senior director.

"Actually, my brother Will owns the company, as was passed down to him by our father. But he's busy with his own life, pursuing his own dreams and aspirations as a lawyer. He drops in every now and then, although he surveys the company's revenues and other affairs privately at home. In the meanwhile, he directed Sean to look after the company for him," Georgiana explained, amusedly eyeing the surprised look on Elizabeth's face.

Elizabeth slowly nodded as everything Georgiana said replaced her previous misunderstanding.

The rest of the day at work went by rather quickly. Elizabeth soon found Georgiana to be one of the easiest people she'd ever worked with and was certain that they would become good friends. There was something about Georgiana that made her easy to talk to. By the end of the day, Elizabeth had learned a lot of the company's regulations as Georgiana instructed her on how the company essentially 'worked'.

What troubled Elizabeth, however, was the unrelenting sense of nausea that never left her since the morning. It dwindled at certain moments of the day and heightened unexpectedly at other times. During lunch, Elizabeth hardly had the appetite to eat. She was puzzled by her sudden sickness as she had not even felt symptoms of it from days before.

At five o'clock, Elizabeth stepped into her car and prepared to drive home. On her way home, she realized that she'd run out of aspirins and flu medicine. After picking up a bottle of Advil, she proceeded to the register. Passing by a couple of aisles, a sign saying 'Family Planning' caught her eyes.

Initially, she'd walked pass that sign. Moments later, she walked back and stared at the sign. An epiphany found its way through her clouded mind and dawned on her senses, sending shivers down her back. Now that she thought about it, she was two weeks late.

'_Oh god, no way. No way.'_

As much as she wanted to ignore the sign, pay for her pills, and leave, she was rooted firmly in her spot, unable to move. She rewound her memories. _'You've got to be kidding me. Since when were we careless enough to not use protection?'_ Elizabeth narrowed her eyes and thought some more before letting out a loud groan. _'Oh god, not the Tequila. Not the goddamned Tequila.'_

There was a night, she remembered—a night a little over a month ago when she had had a bit too much to drink with George. _'Why were you so stupid, so careless?'_ Elizabeth silently reprimanded herself. _'Why?'_ They'd done it that night—done it without a single thought to the consequence of what their act of unprotected union could bring.

Elizabeth numbly walked down the aisle, surveying a couple brands before hastily grabbing two pregnancy tests off the shelves as if she didn't want anyone to see. Slowly, she walked to the check-out counter.

"These are accurate, right?" she asked the cashier, pointing to the two tests.

"Yes, Ma'am. They're the newest and most accurate ones we've got in stock," the cashier replied.

Elizabeth thanked the employee, took her stuff, and walked back to her car. When she arrived at home, Elizabeth tossed the bag of purchases onto the counter. She took out the two boxes and stared at them. Slowly, she flipped them over and carefully read the instructions. Opening one of the boxes, she took out the testing stick and headed to the bathroom. _'It can't be that hard,'_ she thought. _'Green for yes, red for no. It was that simple.'_

Since the night of the discovery when Elizabeth found the red sweater of Denise, she'd never wanted to see that color again. Now, she crossed her fingers and hoped more than ever for the color that'd sent her to hell and back again.

Finally, Elizabeth withdrew the stick and brought it up to her face. She slowly opened her eyes, hoping for the color that represented everything from love to lust.

'_Shit,'_ she thought as she bit her lips, her senses betraying her as she fell limp. It was green.

* * *

a/n: I hope the chapter was not too long or tedious to get through. Reviews are greatly appreciated at the early stage of this story. They help me see whether or not you're interested. Suggestions also welcomed. 


	5. Reality

The walls of the room were whitewashed. Pictures of mothers cradling their newborns hung around the room in a spread out manner as if they tried to cover up the stark appearance of the dull white walls. Elizabeth lazily sat herself down in a chair and flipped through the magazines that lay spread out on the table. She gave up a few moments later, unable to find a copy of Newsweek or the newest issue of TIME. What lay before her were magazines that offered tips ranging from nursery decorating to parenting—areas she'd rather not touch for another couple of years.

A vase of flowers stood on a small coffee table to the left, a model of a pregnant woman beside it. Elizabeth closely scrutinized the model before wrinkling her nose in distaste. The woman looked so—swollen and big. She could hardly imagine herself growing into such a formidable size although she remembered seeing her mother toddle around like she had a big watermelon lodged into her stomach a couple of times before—three to be exact. Elizabeth stopped herself in her thoughts. _'Relax, you're just scaring yourself. What do a couple pregnancy tests mean? Absolutely nothing. Nothing's for sure until a professional confirms it. Tests mess up all the time. And that's why people buy ten of them at once—and that's how those companies make money.'_

Her thoughts pertaining to self-reassurance were soon interrupted when the door opened and a nurse promptly stuck her head into the room.

"Elizabeth?"

Elizabeth stood up immediately from her seat and offered a weak smile.

"Dr. Chase is ready to see you now," the nurse announced, holding the door widely open for Elizabeth.

Following the nurse, she entered another room. Unlike the waiting room, the room was furnished with baby blue wallpaper. Upon the walls were pictures of young infants smiling happily in their toothless state. Elizabeth studied the bubbly faces, wondering whether or not photographers bothered to Photoshop the faces of babies for the sake of mass appeal. A couple minutes later, a woman with brown hair and a pair of thinly framed glasses opened the door and walked into the room.

"Hi," the doctor smiled, taking out a pen from her coat pocket and flipping open the patient folder.

Elizabeth smiled back and slightly nodded her head.

"Elizabeth, it's nice to meet you. I'm Dr. Chase," greeted the woman cheerfully.

Elizabeth returned her greeting and silence settled between them as the doctor glanced down at her patient's medical records.

"You seem a little bit nervous," she observed, closely eyeing Elizabeth. "Most new mothers are rather excited when they walk into the room. I just had a patient walk in here with all smiles a half hour ago. She couldn't stop talking about her baby."

Elizabeth remained silent in her seat. Happiness was the exact opposite of what she was feeling. An appointment with an ultrasound technician was the last place on earth she wanted to be.

"I need you to confirm my pregnancy," Elizabeth started, wondering why the doctor seemed so taken aback at her statement.

"Yes, that can be done, although I do believe that women nowadays should put more faith into those pregnancy tests. They are ninety percent accurate, you know," the doctor sighed, standing up and walking over to the sink to wash her hands and put on a pair of gloves.

Silently in her seat, Elizabeth crossed her fingers and hoped for a ten percent miracle.

"How far along do you think you are?" the doctor questioned, glancing at her patient.

"A month and two or three weeks" she said automatically replied, having calculated the possible length of her pregnancy for the millionth time now. "If I am pregnant at all," she quickly added to her last declaration, asserting her incredulity to the tests.

The doctor casually surveyed Elizabeth once from head to toe.

"I daresay you are."

Elizabeth stared at her, her mouth slightly agape.

"How do you—" Elizabeth started, her eyebrows shifting to show a look of disbelief.

"I've seen so many pregnant women in my life, I can scope them out with a single glance," the doctor shrugged. "First month into it or not, the signs of bodily changes are too obvious to ignore. But I suppose you want some tangible evidence. Let's do a quick ultrasound to confirm it," the doctor suggested, beckoning Elizabeth to follow her into another room.

* * *

"What are my options?" Elizabeth softly asked, with her head propped up by her arm.

"You have two options. You can either carry the baby to term or terminate the pregnancy."

Elizabeth hesitated at the latter possibility. Although ending the pregnancy was an option, it was not an option she wanted to take without further thought.

"How much time do I have before it's too late to stop the pregnancy?" she questioned, looking up at her doctor.

"You have two months. I don't suggest terminating the pregnancy if you're more than three months along—it's more dangerous and complicating—and a more painful process for you, too."

Elizabeth nodded. "Thanks, Dr. Chase. I'll think about it and let you know," she slowly spoke, unwillingly accepting her situation.

She stepped out of the hospital and drove home. The entire way home, Elizabeth felt numbness spread throughout her body, her mind distracted and unable to think. She fought away the tears as she walked up to the doorsteps of her house. She stepped in, closed the door behind her, and leaned against it. The previous sense of denial was gone and replaced by a daunting realization. Clumsily, she walked over to her couch and sank into it with a heavy sigh.

It was all true. She was pregnant. It was no deception; no lie. She had seen the ultrasound with her own eyes, the sea monkey of an embryo flickering like a tiny little speck on the screen of the black and white monitor. Soon, the doctor said, there would even be a heartbeat to listen to. It was the truth laid out right before her—she was twenty six years old, seeking divorce, and pregnant with a baby from a man she hated most in the entire world—and there was no mistake in any of it. Truth be told, reality sucked.

It wasn't that Elizabeth disliked or hated children. She'd always planned on having a small family, given the right circumstances and timing. A pregnancy now was unimaginable; the last thing she needed in her life. She didn't have time to deal with the life of another being—she had problems coping with her own self everyday. Not to mention the divorce, everything George wanted, and the two ridiculous lawyers. If legal issues and a new job weren't enough to deal with already, fate had decided to throw her another dilemma.

Elizabeth reconsidered her choices. To terminate the pregnancy would be to take away another's right to life. Was that fair? Denying a being the chance to live when its existence was brought around by two other stupid and careless people? But if she were to continue with the pregnancy, what would become of the baby? Could she love it wholeheartedly, knowing well enough that it was the spawn of George as well? What about adoption? That was something she'd rather not consider. Going through the entire excruciating process only to give up the baby seemed like an act far too selfless for her to do.

She shook her head and groaned. _'I still blame it on that stupid cursed bottle of Tequila. If it weren't for that, none of this would have happened. Why does it always have to be the woman who suffers? The ones who bear the evidence under our sweaters while men walk away without a single obligation?'_

Elizabeth closed her eyes and wearily massaged her temples. She was getting a headache and the dizziness was settling in again. After another hour of thinking, she resolved that she would have to discuss the situation with George. She picked up the phone reluctantly after staring at it for a few moments before mindlessly dialing the numbers to his cell phone.

"What do you want?" came the greeting on the other end of the line.

"I want to talk to you—in person. There's something we need to figure out," Elizabeth answered, anger mounting within her upon hearing his voice.

"Why? I'm not supposed to see you until court for almost another two weeks. I'm really busy, you know."

Elizabeth breathed heavily into the phone. She had little energy left—and it was going to be spent coping with his foul temper.

"I'm asking for a couple minutes of your time. Do you think I'd want to spend more time around you than I have to?" she retorted, returning his discourteous manner with a hint of her own.

"If it's just a couple minutes, say it now. I'm not going to meet you just so I can hear you ramble on about what a cruel person you think I am. Personally, I'm not up to pitying or sympathizing with people. If you need to hear condolences, talk to Jane," he snapped back at her.

On the other line, Elizabeth breathed deeply. It took all of her concentration to contain her anger. _'He is such an asshole.'_

"Tomorrow, the Starbucks at Beverly Plaza, ten thirty in the morning, sharp."

There was a hesitation on the phone.

"Fine," came an unwilling reply on the other line. Although he had known her for less than a year, George knew that nothing would thwart Elizabeth's determined persistence. He knew she wouldn't stop until he complied, and so he did. But with another plan in mind. After all, she never said that she wanted to speak with him _alone. _

* * *

Elizabeth stepped out of the car into the frosty December morning. She wrapped her coat tighter about herself as she walked up to the coffee shop. He wasn't there yet. _'He better not have stood me up. Otherwise—"_

A black Mercedes pulled up in the parking lot. After it was parked, two men emerged from the car. One was George, and the other, to Elizabeth's great surprise and disgust was his lawyer. As they approached her, Elizabeth flushed red in the face with anger.

"Why is he here?" she demanded, throwing a revolting look at George.

"Did you say that I couldn't have someone accompany me?" answered George, a false look of innocence written unconvincingly on his face.

"That is a rather rude way for you to greet me, Elizabeth, rudely demanding to know why I'm here. I do believe I deserve a proper greeting," Darcy said in a stoic manner, his face strictly posed as he looked at her.

"Hi. How are you today? It is absolutely wonderful to have you here—you're just the person I wanted to see," Elizabeth answered with a cheerful tone mixed with sarcasm and disdain.

The lawyer glanced disapprovingly at her before emitting a low snort and looking away.

"_The hell with those two,"_ thought Elizabeth bitterly to herself. _"Like lawyer, like client—oh what a perfect match."_

"What did you want to tell me so badly on the phone last night?" George questioned, sighing heavily at Elizabeth. "I haven't got all day you know; the clock is ticking," he finished, tapping his watch with an indignant shake of his head.

"I'm pregnant," Elizabeth said flat out, glancing upwards to see how the two men would react.

The lawyer remained in his usual stiff composure as the news apparently met him with nonchalance while George was evidently unsettled for a moment or two. After a minute, George recomposed himself and looked at Elizabeth, his body stiffly hardened.

"And what am I supposed to do about that?" he asked with an impatient tone as if he had nothing to do with the situation.

"You're the father, so you tell me," Elizabeth returned, giving him a piercingly demanding look.

"I'm telling you right now that I don't give a damn what you do with the thing," he answered, merely blinking at the thought.

"What?" Elizabeth questioned with narrowed eyes, her voice rising with frustration and anger. "You're just going to bail out on me like that?"

"I'm not bailing out on you. You asked for my opinion and I gave you my answer. If you didn't catch what I said before, I'll tell you again: I don't care."

Elizabeth simply stared at him, the heartlessness of George's character hitting her full on like a blow in the face. She turned to glance at the lawyer, wanting to see what his reaction was to his inexorable client. Her anger only rose when she saw that he had his back turned to them, and was occupying himself by studying the directory of the plaza. After another moment, George spoke for the last time.

"I don't care. I don't want it. Do whatever you want with it as you please," he shrugged. "I have to go now," he finished, signaling for his lawyer to follow him.

Without another glance, he left Elizabeth standing alone under the Starbucks sign, a tear escaping from the lid of her eyes as it slowly streaked down her cheek. The lawyer turned around for a brief moment and their eyes met. His eyes seemed to soften for a split second before returning to their usual cold and icy stare. As quickly as he looked, he turned back around and trailed after his client. As the car sped away from the parking lot, Elizabeth got into her own car and picked up her cell phone. She brushed away the tears that stained her phone wet and scrolled through her address book.

"Dr. Chase? Hi, this is Elizabeth Bennet, and I'd like a referral to an abortion clinic."

* * *

Three days later, Elizabeth woke up in the morning with the usual sick feeling. She hated how it made her lose all of her appetite while instilling random cravings all the same. She hated the coming and going of the dizziness, how it disappeared at insignificant parts of the day and heightened during the times she most needed her concentration. Clumsily, she got up from her chair after a wave of nausea passed by her and closed her eyes, concentrating hard on keeping her breakfast contents down. 

'_It's okay; it'll all be over by tonight. All of this will be gone. Every lasting piece of evidence from this damned union will be gone soon enough.'_

All she asked for was her life back. A quarter past eight, Elizabeth slowly made her way down to her car, ignited the engine, and started driving her way towards the abortion clinic on the east side of the city.

* * *

a/n: if you enjoyed this chapter, please review! the many reviews last chapter really did speed up the update. 


	6. Life

She stopped at a red light and brushed a stray tear away from her eyes. _'I need some kind of distraction,'_ she thought to herself with a shake of her head. Absentmindedly, she reached over to turn up the radio. A new song had begun to play; something that she'd never heard before. She leaned towards speaker and tried to make out the lyrics.

_I must have felt your tears  
when they took me from your arms.  
I'm sure I must have heard you say goodbye, __  
__lonely and afraid that you'd made a big mistake. __  
__Could an ocean even hold the tears you cried? _

_But you had dreams for me,  
you wanted the best for me,  
and you made the only choice you could that night._

The light turned green. Elizabeth drove numbly onwards. Of all the songs that could've played, the station just had to play one of an adopted boy singing a tribute to his birth mother. Though the scenario was rather cliché, the lyrics of the song ran through her head, somehow striking a chord somewhere deep within her. Elizabeth continued driving; the song continued playing.

_You gave life to me,  
a brand new world to see._

_So if you worry if your choice was right,  
you gave me up, but you gave everything to me._

_You wanted the best for me,  
and I hope that you'll be proud of who I am._

Could that be what the child she carried tells her about someday? The now delicate life that could one day grow into someone she'd be proud of? Tremors gently shook shoulders and grew stronger with every quiver, forcing her to weave out to the shoulder of the road and park the car. Tears leaked from her eyes and she sobbed onto the steering wheel, the chorus of the song playing on and on.

_You gave me up, but you gave everything to me._

The words haunted her, echoing loudly into the far stretches of her mind. She was amazed at how a single line of music could affect her so much, surprised that she was capable of being this emotional. It was as if someone had taken her sentimental capacity and shruken it to size of a pea. She closed her eyes and forced herself to retrace her thoughts. A mixture of mascara and eyeliner, her tears streaked wildly down her cheeks.

A stream of choices clouded her mind, spurring a plethora of possibilities. Was she really going to go with her decision? A life was not to be neglected, taken for granted,or thrown away. A life was a life, and it was worth nothing less than her own. That life was in her hands, and what was she going to do with it?

She didn't think getting rid of the baby was an option anymore. If ending the baby's life was going to come back and serve as the haunting remembrance of a regretful choice, she'd rather not live with a ghost of her past. An innocent life could not be punished—not when so many tainted souls roamed the world without consequence or atonement. The baby deserved at least a chance to live; a chance to take life into its own hands and mold it into something of its own.

Elizabeth turned her car back around and headed home, taking comfort in knowing she had made the right choice.

_'What a thing to happen,'_ she thought to herself, _'A single song settling a matter between life and death.'_ She almost felt foolish for wanting to terminate the pregnancy in the first place.

There was no doubt now that she was going to have the baby. There was, however, a doubt that she would actually raise the baby. Elizabeth didn't want the baby growing up in a broken family, cast away and shunned aside by its own father. She wanted the baby to grow up in a normal and healthy environment. She wanted the baby to be in a home where people actually wanted it. She didn't have the perfect other half, but someone else did—and her baby would be loved because of that. Adoption was the best choice. She nodded satisfactorily to herself as she reached the steps of her house.

She had the rest of the day off, but it was back to work tomorrow. She kicked off her shoes and flung herself across the couch, groaning when her sudden craving for a Cup Noodle struck her.

'_Instant noodles? Great, so now I've gone craving after food loaded with preservatives—that'll be just great for the baby. Like I've ever taken a liking to those things anyways,'_ she rolled her eyes, wondering what exactly triggered her body to go craving after things she never liked to eat.

Unable to fend off her craving, she headed to the store.

* * *

"Lizzy! We missed you yesterday," exclaimed Gia as she quickly rose from her chair and hurried over to give Elizabeth a warm and welcoming hug.

Although Elizabeth was new to her job, she was quickly adjusting to her new surroundings. Working with Gia and Sean was easy, and in a span of a little more than a week, Elizabeth was surprised at how close they'd gotten to each other in such a short amount of time.

"Hey, Gia!" she breathed, feeling as though Gia's embrace was going to wreak havoc on her ribs.

"So where were you yesterday? Sean said you called in sick," she answered, walking back to her seat behind the table.

Elizabeth sucked in her breath. She didn't think she was ready to tell Gia just yet. Besides, she'd be able to hide her stomach for another two months or so.

"I was…not feeling—err—very well," she managed to piece together, half irritated and amused by her slow reaction and bad lying.

Gia gave her sympathetic glance. "Yeah, the flu's been going around these last few weeks. My husband just got over his."

Elizabeth barely had the time to reciprocate a nod before Sean walked up to them.

"There you are, Lizzy," boomed a cheery voice behind them. "I got your message that you went to see a doctor. Are you feeling better?"

"Yes, much better. Thanks for asking."

"It's great that you're back. We've got a busy week ahead of us. Not only do we have a bunch of ads lining up to be produced, we need to start preparing for the annual Christmas party."

Elizabeth smiled. She was looking forward to the holidays. This year, her mother was going to be taking Lydia, Kitty, and Mary to Europe for a trip, and Elizabeth was more than happy to turn down the offer. According to her plans, she would be spending Christmas and New Year's with Jane in New York.

"So you guys have a party for the company every year?" she questioned, her eyes gleaming with excitement.

"Yeah—dancing, live bands, entertainment, food—the whole shebang," Sean answered with a happy nod.

"Oh Lizzy, it's really fun. You'll like it. It's in a nice big conference room at a hotel and we dance away the night—with or without a date," she stopped, thinking thoughtfully for a brief moment before continuing, "Actually, if you don't have a date, you can dance with my brother. I think you'll like him—Will's gets along with mostly everyone."

Elizabeth smiled and responded positively to Gia's comment. She'd heard so much of Will—so many good things about him—that she was definitely looking forward to meeting her boss.

"Oh yeah, Will…the _ladies'_ man," Sean cut in with a roll of his eyes, particularly emphasizing 'ladies' in a nasally tone. "Lizzy, make sure you watch closely how many women drool over him. He's constantly surrounded in a puddle of slime—it's disgusting," he wrinkled his nose.

Georgiana laughed. "Are you sure you're not just jealous of my brother?" she teased.

"Jealous? _Me _jealous?" Sean gasped as he arched his eyebrows and slapped his right hand over his chest, looking at Gia with a feigned look of shock. "I prefer having the ground around me dry and sanitary, thank you very much," he finished with an exaggerated jerk of his head.

Elizabeth watched the bickering between two cousins with amusement, noting how close a relationship the two shared. She was glad that although Sean was at a higher job position than her, he was not her commanding boss; for had he been one, Elizabeth would not be able to joke around with him. Since Gia's brother owned the company, the three of them easily fitted together as co-workers.

"Anyways," Sean started, turning his attention back to Elizabeth, "We have a lot to do…decorations, band arrangements, food ordering, and a bunch of other details. The three of us will work together on that. We'll start tomorrow because I'll be busy today. If I remember correctly, I need to make a proposition to our new client today."

Elizabeth flipped out an electronic planner and scrolled through the calendar. "You're right; it says here you've got an appointment with the car insurance company, Geico, in two hours."

Gia gave her cousin a curious look, evidently surprised at the news. "Geico? They're switching over to our advertising company?"

With a half smile, Sean nodded. "Viewers have been complaining about the cavemen commercials. The company recently lost a one million dollar lawsuit because some lady's intelligence level was offended by the catch phrase, 'It's so easy, even a caveman can do it'," he replied with a casual shrug.

Elizabeth chuckled. "Well technically speaking, it's not Geico's fault if their client's intelligence fails to measure up to that of a caveman's."

"In the field of advertising, anything viewers can take offense from should be avoided," Sean explained. "Although I do have to agree with you that the lawsuit was ridiculous."

"So that means that I should sue those head-on commercials," mused Elizabeth. "They heavily insult my intelligence level. I don't need to see some woman rub a stick of medicine continuously against her forehead with a droning voice going, 'Head-on, apply directly to the forehead,' repeatedly for a million times in order to figure out how the product works."

"Maybe you'll win the suit and we'll get another transfer client," he commented with a small chuckle.

"Or maybe, it's one of those underhand marketing strategies," Elizabeth continued on thoughtfully. "They purposely give you a headache after watching the commercial so you'd go out and buy their product that's supposed to cure headaches," she hypothesized.

"Perhaps," Sean answered with a laugh, his eyes twinkling in amusement. "Anyways, I'd love to stay and chat all day long, but I have to get ready." He took off after a quick wink and wave at Elizabeth and Gia.

The rest of the morning passed with Elizabeth and Georgiana busily filing papers and labeling documents for their clients. As Elizabeth was putting away the last of the papers before lunch, Gia gave a heavy sigh.

"I miss Will," she murmured with a sad face and downcast eyes.

"Why? Don't you guys talk all the time?" Elizabeth questioned, concerned with Georgiana's sudden drop in mood.

"But then I got married three months ago, and we haven't spent as much time together. Keith and I are newlyweds, so we've been spending a lot of time together—not that it's a bad thing—but it'd be nice to see more of Will."

Elizabeth sympathetically glanced at Gia, knowing her feeling all too well. Being across the country away from Jane had been hard on her.

"Did you tell Will about how you feel?" she asked, putting her arm around Georgiana.

"I have and I can't blame him. He apologized but said that he's been working on a case and that his client's been taking up a lot of his time. He won't even tell me who or what the case involves. He says he has background information he needs to pull up and research," Gia answered, giving another sigh. "His clients always get the better hold of him. Half of the time, he's too nice to even decline."

"Well, the holidays are coming up," Elizabeth hopefully responded, giving Gia a tight squeeze around her shoulders.

"I'm spending the holidays with Keith and Sean's family this year. Will has to go and visit his best friend in New York. I suppose that's a good thing for him because they haven't seen each other in ages," Georgiana explained. "But I shouldn't be complaining about it since Will's always been gone for long periods of time. My parents died when I was seventeen, you see. I got used to it after Will left for college and stuff. Sean's nice enough to keep me company."

Elizabeth felt deeply for Gia. She didn't know that her parents had died when she was so young. She could barely imagine what it would be like if her father had passed away when she was in high school.

"Well, I'll be gone to visit my sister in New York, but after I get back, I have a couple days free and we can hang out then," Elizabeth proposed, happy to see Gia's face light up considerably at her suggestion.

"That sounds great, Lizzie!" she exclaimed, happily picking up her purse. "I'll see you soon, okay? I'm meeting Keith for lunch."

"See you later," she waved as Gia left, picking up her own purse to leave for lunch.

* * *

She sat across the table from Charlotte in the restaurant, both of them eating their food in silence. Charlotte tried starting conversations with Elizabeth, but found that her friend was more occupied in her own thoughts.

"Something's wrong with you, Lizzy," Charlotte carefully observed, eying her friend closely.

"Nothing's wrong. I'm fine, Char. Seriously."

Unconvinced, Charlotte rolled her eyes and tried again.

"Come on, Lizzy—spill it."

Elizabeth closed her eyes. Charlotte would find out sooner or later. In fact, she'd probably be among the first ones to know.

"Okay, fine—you asked for it," Elizabeth answered, bracing herself for Charlotte's reaction.

"I'm pregnant."

Charlotte's jaws dropped and her fork clattered to her plate. For a minute, Charlotte sat in her seat and stared blankly at Elizabeth, blinking and goggling at her with disbelief. Elizabeth was glad that Charlotte hadn't been drinking her iced tea. She was sure that Charlotte would have spat the liquid directly out at her otherwise.

When Charlotte finally started to recompose herself, she narrowed her eyes and talked with skepticism.

"Pregnant?" she asked again, searching her friend's face to see if it might have been a joke.

"Yes," came her stern reply.

Elizabeth was completely serious. Charlotte then pursed her lips and crossed her arms, trying to figure out the answer to the reason why. A few seconds later, her eyes lit up before narrowing again, and she shot Elizabeth a scandalous look.

"Lizzy," she started in a shocked whisper, "Out of your current state of depression, did you go to some bar, get drunk, and unintentionally knock up the bartender?"

Elizabeth didn't know whether she was to laugh at Charlotte's ridiculous conclusion or be alarmed that her friend would think her capable of doing such a thing.

"What? Do I look like Kitty or Lydia to you?" she half-screamed, eyebrows highly raised.

Across the table, Charlotte actually looked relieved. _'So she was totally serious with that possibility,'_ Elizabeth thought to herself, a bit disheartened that Charlotte could even think of her doing something like that.

"No, of course not! It's just…people do weird things under pressure," Charlotte quickly answered, casting her eyes down. Elizabeth could tell that her friend regretted what she'd just said.

"It's George's child," Elizabeth said, watching Charlotte's eyes grow large and round with surprise.

She then proceeded to tell Charlotte of the entire affair—her meeting with George, his indifferent response, and her initial attempt to terminate the pregnancy. Charlotte listened, wide-eyed and engaged.

"I can't believe it. George is such a jerk," Charlotte said with an angry glare after Elizabeth finished. "But you're really brave to be doing this. Tell you what; I'm going to support you one hundred percent, get you everything you need, pamper you like a queen, go with you to ultrasounds, take birthing classes with you, play Mozart for the baby—"

"Thank you, Charlotte," Elizabeth cheerfully responded with a smile, cutting her friend's never-ending list off with a wave of her hand. She knew she'd have Charlotte with her the entire way—maybe even Georgiana and Sean.

Elizabeth took another bite of her salad before looking up to see a very familiar person walk into the restaurant. It was Mr. Collins. She gasped before quickly lowering her eyes to look at her food. It was too late. He'd see her.

Initially, she groaned when he waved, but gave a sigh of relief when the waitress led him to a table away from her line of vision. Five minutes later, however, her luck had changed. Mr. Collins came walking around the corner and Elizabeth soon found herself looking straight up at him. She held back a wince and grudgingly smiled.

"Miss Bennet, what a pleasure it is to see you here," he began, reaching over to pick up Elizabeth's hand.

Elizabeth sat in shock at her lawyer's action and watched in slow motion as he took her hand and gave it a peck with his mouth. When what had happened finally sank into her, she recoiled in disgust. _'Gross! Come on, who greets people like that anymore?'_ she asked herself, hastily bringing both of her hands underneath the table as she tried to find a way of wiping her hand off without him seeing.

Even though she'd managed to wipe her hand with the table napkin, prickling hairs tingled on the spot where he'd kissed it, sending unpleasant shivers down the back of her spine. _'Great…now I have to go and wash my hands a million times.'_

"Mr. Collins, this is my friend Charlotte. Charlotte, this is my lawyer, Mr. Collins," she said shortly afterwards, trying to keep her voice decent and polite. "If you'll both excuse me, I need to go to the bathroom."

She got up from her seat and went into the bathroom, never having been happier to see a faucet and a soap dispenser. After thoroughly washing her hands, she was relieved that the eerie tingling of her hand had disappeared. On the way back to her table, she was surprised and dismayed that Mr. Collins was still there. _'What are they doing? Is he hitting on her? If he is, I'm so going to tease Charlotte about this for the rest of her life.'_

Mr. Collins had taken her seat and seemed readily engaged in a conversation with Charlotte. He stood up only when he saw her approach and bid Charlotte his adieu with a kiss of her hand. Elizabeth could hardly wait to see what Charlotte thought of him, for Mr. Collins certainly lived up to her description as the pompous and ridiculous toad.

As Mr. Collins walked past her, Elizabeth skillfully tucked her arms behind her back, and the two exchanged quick good-byes. Elizabeth slid into her seat, eyeing her friend with a mischievous look, ready to tease her about the encounter.

"So what was that all about?"

She'd expected to hear Charlotte tell her to shut up with an annoyed look, but was instead met with a dreamy and glassy stare.

"I don't know," Charlotte began, her face turning into the lightest shade of red. "But he's so—cute and patient and nice and charming," she continued.

Elizabeth nearly burst out laughing. _'She's kidding right?'_ she thought to herself, grinning widely at Charlotte's sense of humor.

Out of the corner of her eye, Elizabeth spotted something white on the table next to Charlotte's plate. Focusing her eyes on it, she realized that it was a piece of paper.

"Ohh, what is this, Char?" she questioned with curiosity, shooting her friend a playful glance as she pointed animatedly at the paper.

Charlotte was slower to reply.

"It's…well…we…" she said, now turning bright red. "We exchanged telephone numbers and he promised to call me later."

This time, Elizabeth burst out laughing. Charlotte swapped numbers with Mr. Collins? That was the most ridiculous thing she'd heard the entire day.

Charlotte seemed taken aback by her friend's response. Feeling a bit hurt, she asked, "Why are you laughing like that?"

'_Oh shit, she's not kidding,'_ Elizabeth realized upon hearing confused and hurt tone of Charlotte's voice. Automatically, she sobered her face.

Elizabeth stumbled around for an answer. Unable to find one, she decided to shoot her own query at Charlotte.

"I'm sorry, Char—I didn't meant to…do you really think he's—he's…" she started, unable to go finish her sentence.

"He's obviously not the same man you described to me. You are a little too hard on judging people. Mr. Collins is actually a very nice man. I think I'm going to like him," Charlotte replied with confidence, picking up the piece of paper and tucking it into her purse.

Elizabeth still couldn't believe it. The whole situation seemed so surreal. For as long as she remembered, Charlotte's taste for guys had always been similar to hers. They'd often gone through high school year books together, agreeing on the hottest guy in school. This time, however, that was obviously not the case.

After lunch was over, Elizabeth found herself sitting back at the desk, busying herself in the pile of paperwork. The rest of the day passed by quickly and the next day passed in a similar fashion. On Friday afternoon, Elizabeth gathered her belongings and left early, stepping into her car as she began the dreaded drive to the court room.

* * *

a/n: I'd like to credit Mark Schultz's song, "Everything to Me" for the lyrics. I tried to make this chapter a bit more comical and light-hearted despite its dark opening. I hope you've smiled or grunted in amusement at least once. Please review! The many encouraging reviews I got last chapter spurred the writing of this longer chapter.


	7. Jurisdiction

a/n: Honestly speaking, I really wanted to post once every two weeks or so. However, certain things happened in life that put me out of the mood to write. If you don't want to read about it, skip to the story. If you do, read on. Either way, enjoy!

So there's a thing called college everyone's been working towards since let's say...kindergarten. And especially for the last four years of my life, college had always been the main goal. Get good grades, take AP classes, do some extracurriculars, ace the SATs...all for the sake of getting into a good college. So let's just say that I got rejected from my first choice (UCLA, btw). No big deal? Wrong. I've been a bit bummed out lately, wallowing in my own self pity and whatnot.

But now that I've decided to move on (somewhat) and head on over to another UC instead, this chapter was influenced by my experience. I won't spoil the ending for you, but if you pay enough attention to Elizabeth's reaction, you'll see how I'm _trying_ to take life at the moment.

I meant to write a longer chapter, but that would have taken even longer. And you guys have waited long enough, so I put some things out of my way to get it done.

* * *

There she was again, stuck in that same courtroom. The last place on earth she wanted to be. Elizabeth lazily glanced around the room, frowning at the sound of a fly buzzing about. How she hated flies.

The session had begun ten minutes ago, and the judge was droning on about something extremely pointless. It wasn't her fault that she zoned out. In fact, everyone else in the room had gone off on their own tangents. Nobody wanted to listen to a reiteration of laws that divorces had to follow. They'd just wanted to get it done and over with.

George sat on the other side of the room, texting away on his phone. Next to him, his lawyer wore a snobby look on his face, as if it'd be better if he were the one doing the talking. His elbows were crossed and his expression was apathetic.

Elizabeth found the sight of them distasteful and pursed her lips. She sighed and idly looked at the papers in front of her. Absentmindedly, she picked up her pen and began to tap it against the table. She felt like she was back in her school days, stuck in some room with a professor who was good as dead.

The slanted angle of Mr. Collin's nose caught her eye and she began to draw. Tracing his profile with exaggerated lines, she drew something that looked half pig, half chimpanzee. There was no doubt that Mr. Collins remotely resembled those animals, but there was also a reason why she'd failed art class in grade school.

She'd just gotten started on coloring in his large pupils before she felt a breath down her neck. She nearly yelped in surprise as Mr. Collins crookedly leaned his head over her shoulder to see what she was drawing. Elizabeth froze in horror. She wished she'd chosen to draw pretty butterflies instead.

To her relief, Mr. Collins merely chuckled amusedly at her portrait and resumed his position. Elizabeth left out a tiny sigh of relief, glad for once that Mr. Collins's lofty character made it impossible for him to make the connection between her drawing and his appearance.

Her attention soon shifted back to the familiar buzzing of the fly. Following the sound, she eyed the fly as it landed right in front of her. _'Oh, you are so dead,'_ she thought, grinning to herself.

_Wham_!

The slamming of a stack of papers as it met the surface of the desk echoed loudly throughout the wooden room.

"Aha!" Elizabeth victoriously declared out loud.

Glad that the buzzing was no longer there, she shifted back into her seat to finish her drawing, but soon realized that something was amiss. The droning in the court had stopped. When she glanced up and looked around, she surprised to see the faces of every occupant in the room turned towards her. She had been a bit too loud in projecting her triumphant glee.

"Yeah…err…there was a fly," she awkwardly said, gawkily waving her finger around in the air to imitate how the fly flew. "And I killed it."

Across the room, George's lawyer snorted.

"Yes, Miss Bennet, it's quite obvious that you've killed it," Will smirked, pointing to the stack of papers on top of the fly.

"And it's quite obvious that _you_ are unappreciative of my efforts," she shot back. "Most people would clap their hands and worship me for having enough coordination to terminate the existence of any fly."

The lawyer opened his mouth to proclaim his rebuttal, but the judge sensed a change in the atmosphere and spoke before him.

"Flies or no flies, this court case will continue."

Elizabeth shot an indignant glance at Will, whose face now harbored irritation from not being able to express his thought.

"We must bring our attention to the subject of property division," the judge began, peering at Elizabeth over his spectacles.

Straightening up in her seat, Elizabeth put her pen down. The judge was finally getting to what she had been waiting for.

"A settlement between the properties will be issued fairly between both of you," the judge said, scratching his forehead.

"I'm totally fine with the jurisdiction, as long as I get my inheritance and equal share," Elizabeth said, happy that the judge was going to settle the affair fairly.

"You speak with paradox, Miss Bennet."

A voice from the other side of the room whipped away Elizabeth's momentary relief. Elizabeth looked over at Will and raised her eyebrows, demanding an explanation.

"You want an equal share of property division, correct?" Will asked.

"Who doesn't? If _he_ doesn't, I'll happily take his part," she answered, glaring at George.

"And you want your inheritance as well, right?" he asked again.

"Yes."

Elizabeth sensed that the lawyer was planning something against her, but had no choice but to answer in the affirmative again.

"Then do you want to tell me how it's fair for you to have both your equal share _and_ your inheritance on top of that?"

Elizabeth's temper dangerously rose. How she hated people who got around catching loopholes in another's words.

"As a lawyer, I was sure that you'd be able to tell between what is fair or not. Apparently, I'm mistaken," she retorted. "But we do have this guy here to settle the matters," she finished, jerking her head at the judge and glancing hopefully at him.

When she turned to look at the judge, she found him staring back at her with somber eyes.

"Miss Bennet, it is only fair that both parties divide up all aspects of property equally. Mr. Darcy has kindly provided me with a set of stringent rules stating that all joint accounts must be divided."

She couldn't believe it. Elizabeth's eyes grew wide and she opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came out. Finally, she shook her head defiantly and stared back at the judge.

"What kind of nonsensical madness is that?" she questioned loudly, angrily crossing her arms.

"_Law_, Miss Bennet," Will emphasized as he interrupted, "is never nonsense."

'_Shut up, Mr. I-Think- I-Know-It-All,'_ Elizabeth thought bitterly, completely ignoring his statement and keeping her eyes on the judge.

"Well?" she repeated, her brows furrowing in annoyance.

"The account was under Mr. Wickham's name as well. As long as it's under both of your names, it has to be split," the judge calmly explained as he tried to shrug off Elizabeth's mounting anger.

"Well, is that fair? I don't think so. Was George's name in my dad's will? I don't think so. Did my father even know of George's existence in the world? I don't think so." Elizabeth glared at everyone in the room before she nudged Mr. Collins in the ribs, trying to get him to say something.

Upon receiving the harsh jab, Mr. Collins looked up from twiddling his thumbs and cleared his throat.

"Ahem," he started before pompously standing up to address everyone in the room. "I personally believe that my client should receive the inheritance because it is hers."

Elizabeth nearly slammed her head against the table. Instead, she winced and smacked herself on the head.

"What a profound statement to hear coming from someone who's been in law school for eight years," she muttered angrily to herself. _'That was real deep insight, genius. I applaud you.'_

She looked across the room and found Will and George to be biting back a laugh. Even the judge seemed amused with Mr. Collins's amateur statement. Save for the time she lost her balance on a platform in the mall and fell directly into a Roman-themed fountain, Elizabeth had never been so publicly embarrassed. Now she had learned it the hard way—her lawyer was better off not talking.

"Opinion has naught to do with law," Will spoke lazily, giving Mr. Collins a snickering look of condescension.

"And who makes those laws if opinions aren't taken into consideration? Isn't the decision between good and evil made from one's very feelings and morals pertaining to justice?" Elizabeth interjected, sending her sharp retort over to Will.

She had no idea why she was defending her lawyer, for it really should be the other way around. Perhaps it was her determination to spite George's lawyer. Will shrugged before his eyes lit up with an answer after looking seemingly thoughtful.

"Opinions made from people involved in those very affairs contain bias. Unless you are a third party, your opinions aren't worth a penny," he replied, avoiding Elizabeth's piercing glare.

"I shall have to agree with Mr. Darcy," the judge began, nodding approvingly to Will. "The law states the terms and I carry out those terms. That is only thing I or anyone can do," he finished."

Elizabeth turned pale with anger. The judge seemed resolute on his order, and she had not the money or power to argue against law. She didn't stand a chance against George or his lawyer. The chance of her winning an appeal under her circumstance was slim and unlikely. Nothing was fair about the near outcome of the trial. Although Elizabeth hoped for the best, she knew now that such hope was quickly fading.

A possible way out crossed her mind. She could certainly use the baby to argue for money. However, as quickly as the thought came, she dismissed it. Although it seemed perfect to use the baby as an excuse for a need of money, Elizabeth didn't want to do such a thing.

Why?

The baby was not a chess piece she could navigate around the board for the sake of her gain. It was not a puppet for her to maneuver and achieve her means with. She wasn't about to use her own child as the gambling piece for money. Her baby was worth more than that.

She'd rather live a life devoid of its luxuries than crawl on her knees begging George for an extra bit of pocket money. She had her mind set on paying for all the medical expenses by herself. Because she was putting the baby up for adoption, she felt that during the short nine months she'd ever know the baby, she would love it with the best of her abilities through her own efforts.

She wasn't going to drag the baby into the case. It didn't deserve to be a negotiating pawn for a bag of money. This was something she could do in her power to protect the child and keep it away from harm's way. And that was the only thing her pride would allow.

She had no other choice. But the only way out didn't seem so bad. Elizabeth was going to accept the outcome of the trial with grace and dignity. She was going to walk out of the courtroom with her head up and feet firm. Given, she wanted to send George and his lawyer to the deepest pits of hell, but there was nothing else she could do about it. She was going to handle her loss and disappointment with nothing other than pure acceptance of fate. Money will always be money, but her father's unconditional love and affections for her will live on forever. She didn't need to worry—it wasn't the end of the world.

"If the law is the law, then it is my intent and pleasure to carry it out."

Elizabeth emitted a courteous smile before glancing over to the other side of the room. George and his lawyer seemed to be beyond astonished. It was obvious that they'd expected her to pout, whine, and put up a scene.

She could tell that George's face held one of slight disappointment over the fact that she'd given in so easily without putting on a self-embarrassing fight to amuse him with. She could not tell, however, whether or not his lawyer's expression was one reflective of admiration or something she'd simply misinterpreted.

"Very well, Miss Bennet. You may all leave. This case is dismissed. I will see you three weeks from now for an update on your divorce status," the judge finished with a clack of his gavel.

Mr. Collins, who somehow had everything packed up already, said a quick goodbye to Elizabeth and left through the door with his briefcase. George left in a similar fashion, leaving Elizabeth and Will alone in the room.

The silence between them was awkward and loud. Hastily, she gathered her belongings, picked up the stack of documents, and strode quickly out of the room. As she was about to exit the building, she heard footsteps rushing to catch up with her.

"Enough coordination to kill a fly, but not enough dexterity to keep a stack of papers together, I see."

Elizabeth whipped around and found herself face to face with Will. She was surprised to hear a new tone in his voice, which for the first time, had not a trace of condescension in it. Instead, he seemed to be merely teasing her.

"Here, you dropped this," he quickly continued, handing her a couple pieces of loose paper that must have slipped out when she hastened from the room.

Elizabeth reached and took the papers from him, averting his gaze. _'Ah…so he is capable of showing some level of humanity.'_

"Thanks," she muttered, looking up. However, the door was already closing behind Will as he left. Elizabeth watched him until he disappeared into the parking lot.

His character deeply puzzled her. Most times, he was an arrogant goat, strutting around as if he were the center of the universe. On rare occasions, though, Elizabeth would be able to catch a tiny flicker of understanding and sympathy pass through his piercing blue eyes. Mr. Darcy was an enigmatic man, and had Elizabeth liked him a bit better, she would have taken some efforts to figure out his true character.

For the moment being, however, she was content with the distance she put between them. She found it easier to live life without his face bobbing around in front of hers. Thank goodness she only had to see him once every couple of weeks.

* * *

a/n: Accepting rejection with grace and dignity...if only I could be like the characters who exist in my head. Anyways, PLEASE REVIEW. They will really make my day. I'm totally serious.


	8. Blank Page No More

a/n: So I thought I would get a chapter up so quickly because you guys did such a fantastic job reviewing last chapter. A great big thanks and many hugs to everyone for giving encouragements...you guys have no idea how comforting they were to read.

So here's to another chapter that I hope you'll all enjoy.

* * *

Bright and early the next morning, Elizabeth stepped into the doors of Ad Genesis. Immediately, she noticed that the receptionist desk she shared with Gia was not where it used to be. Turning her head, she found that the desk now stood on the other side of the room. Looking at Gia, she frowned.

"So did Sean just randomly get into a mood of rearranging things or what?" she questioned, raising her eyebrows as she pointed back and forth between where the table used to be and where it was now.

"Sean didn't do it—the Asian clients did," Gia answered with a look of defeat on her face.

"Excuse me?"

"Feng shui, they call it."

"Feng _what_?" Elizabeth asked, leaning closer to Gia as if she couldn't hear the last word.

"You know, that thing that has to do with the chi?" Gia asked, absentmindedly waving her hand around in the air.

"No."

"Well, apparently it wasn't flowing well in here," Gia said, glancing around the room.

"Yeah, and that's why we have air-conditioning." Elizabeth rolled her eyes, walking over to set her belongings down.

"And you show such respect for other cultures," Gia teased, looking at Elizabeth with mock disapproval.

"Do you see me re-parking cars on the street because their order contradicted with the harmony of my environment?" she retorted, sighing as she sat down in her seat before throwing up her hands in defeat. "Unbelievable."

Gia laughed and shrugged. Arguing with Elizabeth was impossible.

Sure enough, a group of Asian clients emerged from the elevator fifteen minutes later with a very happy Sean accompanying them. He walked them to the front door to send them off. Afterwards he turned and walked towards Gia and Elizabeth.

"So what are they here for?" Elizabeth questioned, assuming that the business was successful by the look of Sean's elated face.

"Rice commercials—stereotypical," he replied, still grinning uncontrollably. "Everything was settled with an excellent negotiation too. They were easy to work with as long as you let them move a couple tables and chairs around. I really should look more into this chi stuff," he added, looking around pompously before taking a deep breath like one 'sinking the chi' would.

"Wipe that silly smile off your face, Sean. You look as ridiculous as that chi theory of yours sounds," said Elizabeth, looking at Sean's wide-faced grin.

"Don't insult my million dollar smile," he responded good-humouredly, poking proudly at his left dimple. "Oh and I almost forgot, we've got to figure out some party arrangements."

"What are we missing?" asked Elizabeth, taking out her planner to check the list of things that still needed to be done.

"I'm missing a date." Sean shrugged, casting a curious glance towards Elizabeth.

"Don't even _think_ about Lizzy," Gia quickly cut in, pulling Elizabeth towards her. "She's my brother's date. So that means she's already claimed."

Sean scowled. "William?" he asked skeptically, "She doesn't even know Will."

"I'm introducing Lizzy to Will," Gia answered with determinedly. Turning to Elizabeth, she said, "Don't worry—you'll like him."

Elizabeth nodded in response. If Will was just like Gia, she didn't think why they wouldn't get along.

"You sure Will even _wants_ a date?" Sean asked skeptically. "He's usually not the type to—"

"Well, he's always trying to make me a more outgoing person, so I'm going to make him be a bit more sociable for once," Gia interrupted before quickly saying, "Not that he's unfriendly or anything, Liz. He'll be a little shy at first, but once you get to know him, it'll be okay."

Sean rolled his eyes. "That's Gia—always on the hunt for possible women her brother could marry," he said to Elizabeth. Turning to Gia, he added, "Stop you're advertising your brother. He's not for sale."

Gia turned bright red. "I am not, Sean! I just think that meeting new people would be good for him," she finished with a flustered look.

Sean nodded and jerked his head thoughtfully. "True. The reclusive hermit is constantly holed up in that mansion of his."

"Sean! Don't call your cousin that!" Gia scolded, folding her hands and frowning.

"I'm older. So sue me." Sean shot her a grin and a shrug.

The rest of the morning passed with the three of them in Sean's office, trying to book up entertainment, arrange catering, and figure out decorations. When lunch rolled around, they piled into Sean's car and drove to BJ's to eat.

* * *

"So what's up with your life, Liz?" Sean asked, peering over the menu before his eyes dropped back to scan the page for something he could order.

Elizabeth sighed behind her menu. "I'm not exactly loving life at the moment."

"What's wrong?" Gia asked before looking up and signaling a waiter to come and take their orders.

"It's a long story," Elizabeth wearily answered, closing the menu and setting it on the table.

After everyone ordered, Sean looked back at Elizabeth and shrugged. "I'm ready to hear it if you're ready to talk."

Nodding, Elizabeth proceeded to tell them everything from the night she caught George with Denise. Before Sean and Gia, she was no longer a blank piece of paper. They now knew of her past. After she finished telling them about the loss of her inheritance, Sean and Gia looked like they were ready to murder the next lawyer they met.

"Well, there's one word to describe your ex-husband's lawyer," Sean said as he shook his head hopelessly, crossing his arms and glaring. "Asshole."

"No kidding. And it's not like that Mr. Collins is any better," added Gia, sighing heavily with a gloomy look on her face. "Lizzy, you should have told me earlier. My brother's a lawyer and he would have been able to help you right then and there."

"Yeah, ask Will. He should be able to do _something_." Sean nodded in consent. "Maybe he can take apart that stupid lawyer's reputation. What's his name?"

"Like I know…I wasn't paying attention when the judge introduced him," Elizabeth answered, thinking back to the first day they met in court. "I just remember something about his first name being relatively bizarre."

"Whatever his name is, I'm sorry to hear about everything. I didn't know you were going through all this," said Gia sympathetically, putting an arm around Elizabeth's shoulders.

"And there's one more thing you guys should know." Elizabeth sighed and looked down, pulling away from Gia.

"Surprise me," Sean said with raised eyebrows, crossing his arms. It didn't seem as though anything could be even worse in Elizabeth's life.

"I'm pregnant."

Sean's jaws dropped and his eyes widened significantly, making him resemble something like a bush baby. Next to Elizabeth, Gia gasped and covered her mouth with her hand.

"Damn," Sean finally managed to say, still staring wide-eyed at Elizabeth. "Okay, now I'm surprised."

Elizabeth then told them everything else including her intention of putting the baby up for adoption.

"You're really brave—did you know that?" Sean said after Elizabeth was done explaining.

Elizabeth cracked a half-smile and shrugged. "I got to do what I've got to do."

"And you'll do a great job of it," Gia assured Elizabeth with a pat on her back. "Don't hesitate to ask us for help."

The rest of lunch passed smoothly as the topic soon changed to a lighter mood, making Elizabeth and Gia roar with laughter when Sean recounted the time he attempted to put out a chemical fire with water and ended up blowing a hole in the roof of his high school.

* * *

Back at home later that evening, Elizabeth stared at her phone. Sooner or later, her mom would need to know. She felt that it was better to tell her mother before news somehow miraculously leaked to her. Nothing escaped her mother—news always found their ways to her. That was one bad thing about knowing a person with one too many connections for gossip.

Picking up the phone, she hesitantly dialed the number.

"Hello?" greeted a perky and enthusiastic voice on the line.

"Hey," Elizabeth answered, rolling her eyes.

There was a pause and a sigh on the other side.

"Who's this?" the voice questioned, completely devoid of its previous friendly and welcoming manner.

Snorting at the sudden change in tone, Elizabeth knew that it was either Lydia or Katherine on the other line, disappointed that a girl instead of a guy was calling.

"After memorizing the voice of every guy at your school, is it too much to ask for you to know the voice of your own sister?" Elizabeth said, shaking her head hopelessly.

"I can certainly match up the voice of my sisters to their _lovely _personalities, _Elizabeth_," came the sharp retort.

She knew that it was Katherine speaking on the phone now, since Lydia's mind was incapable of coming up with such fast retorts. Lydia's brain was built with the ability to scope out all the hot guys in a room in five seconds, but she was a hopeless ditz when it came to everything else requiring a fast reaction.

"Hi Kitty," Elizabeth greeted unenthusiastically as a loud and derisive laugh met her ears.

"Kitty?" Katherine screeched on the other side. "How old am I, Lil-lily-beth?"

Elizabeth winced. It wasn't her fault that she had the biggest name in the family. Until she was five, she had trouble pronouncing her name properly. Ever since then, her family often joked about her clumsy tongue when it came to linguistics. Elizabeth hated it when her childhood shortcomings were brought up.

"Sorry, _Katherine_," Elizabeth wearily said, slowly pronouncing every syllable of her sister's name. "Can I talk to mom please?"

"Yeah, whatever," came her short reply.

The phone passed hands and a very cheerful voice greeted Elizabeth.

'_Not going to be happy for long,_' Elizabeth thought to herself.

"Mom, there's um…something you need to know," she said, wrinkling her nose as she imagined all the possible scenarios of her mother throwing a fit.

"What?" Mrs. Bennet curiously asked.

"I'm…" Elizabeth started before taking a deep breath, "getting a divorce," she finished.

"You're—what?!"

"Getting a divorce," Elizabeth repeated before insisting that her mother hear the entire story before interrupting again.

Elizabeth began her story, telling her mother everything except the part about her inheritance. When she was done explaining, the line was silent.

It was a while before Mrs. Bennet said anything. "That daring, wicked, incorrigible son of a—I have children I'm not even going to say it."

"Mom, it's okay, I'm over it," Elizabeth cut in, relieved that her mother wasn't blaming her.

She listened without another comment as Mrs. Bennet ignored her daughter and muttered a flurry of curses and ill-wishes that sent George to hell and back. Such was the way her mother's temper worked, and Elizabeth couldn't help but wonder if some of it had rubbed off on her.

"Well, what are you going to do now? How are you going to live?" her mother insistently questioned after she was done letting loose her temper.

"I got a job and everything's working out fine. That baby will be fine. I'm old enough to take care of myself. Everything's going smoothly. Charlotte's here to help me anyways," Elizabeth quickly replied, trying to soothe her mother's inflaming nerves.

Her mother then offered a stream of suggestions and advices for Elizabeth to follow during her current state. Ranging from scheduling monthly ultrasounds to maintaining a safe distance from smokers, her mother told Elizabeth a bunch of things that would help the pregnancy. Gladly accepting tips from a woman who'd been pregnant five times in her life, Elizabeth listened intently; rather disappointed that she would be unable to eat alfalfa sprouts for the next nine months.

"If you need me at all Liz, do call," her mother said. "I'm sorry I have to go now. Lydia is yelling downstairs because I need to take her shopping for something she can wear to that dance on Friday. Apparently she's got a 'hot' date or whatever it is you kids call it these days. "

Elizabeth laughed. As eager as her mother was to play matchmaker, she was still a bit slow catching up on modern lingo. When they hung up, Elizabeth let out a sigh of relief. Her mother's reaction had been the opposite of what she feared. Whether it was the protective motherly side that overpowered Mrs. Bennet's easily irritated nerves or the sympathy she'd felt for her daughter, Elizabeth was glad that everything turned out all right in the end.

Now the only person who still needed to know about the pregnancy was Jane. However, Elizabeth figured that she'd tell Jane after she arrived in New York. She didn't want Jane freaking out about her boarding an airplane so early in her pregnancy.

It'd been a long day, and Elizabeth propped herself up in her bed, took out her diary, and began to write. Keeping a journal had always been her habit, something that she'd been doing since she was six. There was much to write about that day, and she felt empowered with a pen in her hands, free and at liberty to express her own thoughts. Scribbling across the page, she filled the diary's pages with her comments and ideas, giving tangible life to her memories.

She'd told three people the secrets she had been keeping for quite some time that day. To them, she was no longer a blank page indistinguishable to the human eye. She was a filled chapter of the book now, with her past revealed and story told. Surprisingly, she didn't feel nakedly exposed or vulnerable in any way. Instead, she felt great relief that an enormous weight had been lifted off her shoulders. Every day, she would continue to fill in her story; page by page, chapter by chapter.

When she was finished, five more pages in her notebook were no longer blank.

* * *

a/n: It's spring break. I'm at liberty to write, BUT I'm also at liberty to be lazy and unproductive, so motivate me with your reviews. It takes a minute of your time, but it'll speed up the update by weeks. Spend the time, drop a review...it's much appreciated.


	9. Boy Meets Girl

Come Saturday afternoon and Elizabeth Bennet was in a frenzy. She'd picked out her dress with Charlotte and Gia three days ago, had her hairstyle planned and done a couple hours past, but still couldn't help but pace back and forth in her room.

She was going to be meeting her boss that night and couldn't afford to tarnish one bit of a perfect first impression. Gia had been so excited about Elizabeth finally meeting her brother that Elizabeth didn't want to let her down in any way. Everything had to be right—her persona, appearance, aura of appeal—everything right down to her freshly painted red toenails.

Besides, it was nice to be out in the dating pool again. Sure, she was pregnant and in the middle of a divorce, but a little flirtation here and there wouldn't hurt—right? It wasn't like she wanted a full-on relationship anytime soon, but a little harmless coquetting should do her some good.

Or so she thought.

Walking up to the full-length mirror, Elizabeth eyed herself up and down, slightly turning left and right, scrutinizing her own appearance. She was going to wear a black dress that night. The dress, though simple in design, was elegant in its own way.

The halter line of the dress tied smoothly at the back of her neck, draping the dress in a subtle yet alluring fashion. Silky and sleek in fabric, the dress clung to all the right places, wrapping tightly around her torso as it sumptuously highlighted her slim waistline before delicately dropping a little below her knees.

Nodding in satisfaction at her own reflection, Elizabeth took one last look at herself before grabbing her keys and heading out the door.

Little did she know that she was not the only apprehensive one in all of this.

* * *

It'd been a while since Will Darcy had gone out on any date. A long while, in fact. A couple years that probably dated back to his earlier graduate school days. He couldn't even remember how his last date began or ended and only had with him a mere memory of a tall red-haired girl with bright green eyes. But that didn't really matter—none of his dates ever blossomed into serious relationships anyway.

He was both the proprietor of a company and a lawyer, well ahead for someone so early on in his career. Young, wealthy, and handsome, he was the one who had it all. Women fawned over him and latched onto him like magnets. So why couldn't he reciprocate their actions?

No, he wasn't gay.

Fortune simply refused to shine on his love life. And what a shame that was. He was obviously the type of man to make _any_ woman happy.

After much speculation, he finally figured that he'd never bothered to speed up his emotional attachments. It wasn't that he disliked girls. Simply put, every girl he met somehow failed to catch his eye.

And he never quite understood why.

But now, pushing thirty-two, he was growing a bit more desperate. After watching his young sister get married a couple months ago, his state of bachelorhood was becoming more and more questionable. The once unimaginable idea of having another grow old with him is suddenly beginning to grow fonder on him.

So when Gia brought up the possibility of introducing him a date for the party, he automatically replied in the affirmative. Looking back, however, Will regretted that his tongue had been so fast in answering.

As eager as he was to meet the girl Gia claims to be 'absolutely amazing', he was now having second thoughts about it all. To start off, he had never been one to converse openly with someone he didn't really know. Even though Gia told him that it would be a good chance for him to fix his social inadequacies, he only felt more nervous when it struck him that his date would be the center of his entire night.

She was beautiful, he was told, by both Gia and his cousin. And although they both refused to tell him her name and give any physical descriptions, he was well aware that she was Sean's new secretary.

He knew that because Sean had threatened to hit him over the head with a frying pan if he did anything to offend her. Ideally, she would have been Sean's date had Gia not thrown Will into the picture. And for that, Sean had given him one very sour face.

Examining himself in front of the mirror, he took a deep breath and sighed.

"_Calm yourself, Will. It's not too hard to bring back those old and glorious girl-chasing days in college,_" he told himself. "_No need to worry. She's just a girl—a very cute, charming, pretty, and nice girl._"

He smiled, smoothing out his black tuxedo and carefully running his hands through his hair.

"_You're smart, rich, powerful, and handsome. You are __**the**__ Will Darcy. And she'll love you for it—who doesn't?_"

The Fitzwilliam Darcy was soon to discover that despite his wallet full of money and far above average appearance, not all girls fell to their knees and worshipped him.

In fact, some did quite the opposite.

* * *

"Lizzy, you look beautiful," gasped Gia when Elizabeth walked in a couple hours before the party to help with setup.

Elizabeth gave a weak smile. "You too, Gia," she returned, nervously rubbing her hands together.

"Come, I'd like you to meet someone," Gia said with a grin, leading Elizabeth into another room.

Elizabeth's heart pounded vigorously in her chest and her stomach took a leap.

"_This is it,"_ she thought, her quickened pulse echoing and ringing loudly in her ears.

She smoothed out her dress and straightened her posture, trying to make herself appear as sophisticated as possible. When she looked up, she found herself face to face with a man smiling warmly at her.

Elizabeth let out a small gasp and the corners of her mouth crept up to reveal a shy smile.

"_Not bad,_" she thought to herself. "_Not bad at all._"

Tall and broad-shouldered, the blond man had a tinge of masculinity about him that automatically drew Elizabeth into his presence. She met his pair of chestnut colored eyes smiled helplessly.

Before Gia could open her mouth to speak, Elizabeth was already eagerly making herself known.

"Hi, my name is Elizabeth Bennet. I've only been here for a little while. Nevertheless, It is _such _a pleasure and honor to be able to work in your company," she enthusiastically greeted, the smile on her face growing even wider.

The man blinked blankly at her and looked confused for a moment before realization hit him and his eyes shone brightly in amusement. Beside him, Gia giggled and Sean burst into laughter at the far side of the room.

Elizabeth froze. Had she done something wrong? Perhaps she was too giddy in introducing herself. Slightly wincing, she scolded herself for letting her tongue run ahead of her better judgment.

"Save your introductions for later, genius," Sean smirked.

Dropping her gaze to the floor, Elizabeth shuffled her feet and felt her cheeks burn hotly.

"Lizzy," Gia smoothly began, drawing closer to the man before lacing her hands with his. "I'd like to you meet Keith, my husband," she finished, beaming radiantly at him.

Elizabeth flushed red in the face.

"Oh, oh…excuse me. I am _so_ sorry." She managed to stutter, shyly glancing apologetically at Keith. How on earth did she mistake her co-worker's husband for her boss?

Keith laughed warmly and shook Elizabeth's hand. "Don't worry about it," he reassured her.

"It's very nice to meet you. Gia's told me so much about you."

"Oh, has she?" he asked, his eyebrows curiously lifting. "Well I hope it isn't anything _too_ bad about me," he shrugged, throwing his wife a playful glance.

Elizabeth smiled and shook her head.

"Well, good," he grinned. Lowering his voice, he added, "Otherwise that brother of hers would be running after me with a carving knife."

"Keith!" Gia exclaimed. "Will would never do something like that."

Keith chortled in amusement. "Oh, I wouldn't underestimate your brother's power to stalking you around if I were you."

Turning to Elizabeth, he said, "Wait until I tell you some stories about our dates. You wouldn't believe the troubles Will took to follow us around. I'm not even kidding…that man is _everywhere_."

Elizabeth bit back a laugh and wondered to herself exactly what kind of a man Will was. She'd heard so many accounts of him that she couldn't wait to meet him in person and see for herself.

"I'd like to know why he's a lawyer when he ought to be a spy instead," Keith joked, putting his arm around his wife. "Because I swear he comes in multiple entities."

"Liz," Sean called from the other side of the room. "Do you mind running out to buy two more rolls of wrapping paper? I'm going to need some more to wrap up the raffle prizes."

"Yeah sure," she answered. "Later, guys," she said, turning around to leave after a quick wave.

…

When she returned, people had begun to show up and the banquet hall was beginning to fill. She found Sean and handed him the wrapping paper. Before long, she realized that Sean was quite incapable of wrapping presents without making the paper look as though it had been purposely crumpled, so she started to help him finish the last couple of prizes.

"So…any word of advice before I meet my boss?" she asked, slicing off a piece of tape.

"Nervous?" he shot back with an arch of his eyebrows, curiously eyeing Elizabeth.

"Just a bit," she answered with as much nonchalance as she could, trying not to appear so uneasy.

Sean laughed. "Lizzy of all people to be nervous. And I thought meeting new people was supposed to be your forte."

Elizabeth sighed. "I thought so too."

Sean's face sobered at Elizabeth's solemn tone. "Don't worry, Liz. He'll like you. Will's a good guy once you get to know him, but don't judge him at first glance. He's probably doing that weird timid thing he does whenever he's around unfamiliar people."

"Thanks, Sean," Elizabeth said as Charlotte popped her head around the door.

"Lizzy, come and dance. They've just started and need some people to fill out the dance floor."

Elizabeth's eyes lit up excitedly and she happily followed Charlotte out the door, forgetting all about her nervousness.

Out on the dance floor, Elizabeth moved to the beat of the music, relishing in its each and every pulse, gladly letting its rhythm reign over the movements of her body. However, her time out on the dance floor was short-lived. A tap on her shoulder broke the ubiquitous flow, and Elizabeth swung her head around to see Gia beckoning her to follow.

"Come," she mouthed.

Elizabeth frowned in question, but obediently followed Gia out of the room. Right when they turned the corner Elizabeth spotted a group of people gathered around, exchanging greetings. The center of their attention was focused on a tall man who stood back facing Elizabeth.

Immediately, Elizabeth concluded for the man to be her boss. However, as her previous assumption had turn to be a very embarrassing mistake, Elizabeth decided to keep her mouth shut until Gia told her what exactly was going on.

"You see that man over there standing amidst the sea of people?" she questioned, jerking her head towards that direction.

Elizabeth swallowed and slowly nodded.

"He's my brother. As soon as people stop crowding him, I'll introduce you guys," Gia finished, giving Elizabeth a cheerful sidelong glance.

When people finally began to direct their attention elsewhere, Gia began to take action.

"Stay here," she whispered to Elizabeth before jubilantly bouncing up to her brother.

"Brother dearest, there is someone I'd like you to meet," she happily chirped, her mouth revealing a wide grin.

Elizabeth saw the back of the man's head dip to give a small nod.

"Oh but before you meet her, you shall have to close your eyes," she continued on, her eyes playfully shining with excitement.

Elizabeth's eyes widened. Gia was going a bit too over the top with the matchmaking.

Will made a face at his sister. Her proposal was ridiculous. He was here as the authoritative figure of a company, not someone to be introduced for a silly play date. What would his workers think of him if he did _that_?

"Gia," he spoke in a low voice, "as much as I appreciate your enthusiasm, I am _not _doing that. Listen, can't we just have a nice and conventional introduction? Because what you're asking me to do is so…so…"

His voice tapered off and he shifted his gaze to his feet. He couldn't even find a way to properly explain himself. Instead, his sister finished the sentence he left hanging.

"Corny? Cheesy? Both?" she suggested.

Hoping that she would reconsider her request, Will quickly nodded.

"Too bad," she replied with crooked smile and an amused twitch of her lips. "You'd best hurry…she's getting anxious," Gia added loudly, glancing around his shoulder at Elizabeth.

Will tried to follow his sister's glance and was halfway to turning his head when Gia slapped him on the shoulder.

"No peeking, cheater."

Rolling his eyes, Will sighed. He wasn't in the mood to argue. The sooner it was done, the better. He quickly glanced around the room to make sure that no one would notice. Most of the people were enjoying themselves in the other hall. Hesitantly, he followed his sister's instructions.

As soon as he closed his eyes, Gia bounced back to Elizabeth, grabbed her by the hand, and began to lead her towards her brother.

Wide-eyed, Elizabeth cautiously walked towards the man, squinting to get a better look at him. She soon discovered that the closer she got, the more familiar he looked. When she finally walked up and saw the full of his face, she nearly choked.

Either the man was George's lawyer or looked exactly like him. Elizabeth bit back a groan and fervently prayed for the latter.

"Okay, you can open your eyes now," Gia happily prompted when she stationed Elizabeth right in front of her brother, looking hopefully for signs of approval from both parties.

When Will's eyes opened and focused upon a very familiar face, Elizabeth saw a spark of disbelief flash through his eyes and she caught his eyes slightly widening before he went back to his usual stiff appearance.

Stupefied, Elizabeth had only one though running through her head.

"_Oh my god, it's him_," she thought over and over again. "_**That's**__ who I work for?_"

She stared at him, convinced that she was now officially the unluckiest person in the world. He blankly returned her glance with inanimate response. Elizabeth narrowed her eyes. He was carrying on as though he'd never seen her before, standing there patiently as he waited to be introduced.

Although rage initially surfaced in her disapproval of Will playing dumb, Elizabeth soon had a hint that Will simply did not want to upset his sister. Obviously trying to avoid conflict in such a public place, he was merely playing along.

A new wave of people had arrived and anything Elizabeth said with a raised voice would inevitably grab the attention of everyone in the room. She couldn't be the one making a scene. Not when Gia had spent so much effort trying to get both of them to come together. As much as she wanted to point fingers at the man before her and give him the lesson he deserved, she couldn't bring herself to ruin everyone else's night.

"_Fine_," she thought with a silent snort. "_Two can play this game_."

* * *

a/n: so long as the reviews keep coming, the next chapter will too at a far more timely manner. if you want to read about lizzy and darcy's night together, drop a review to speed up the process. many thanks to everyone for reading.


	10. Girl Hates Boy

a/n: Wow. You guys did a fantastic job reviewing last chapter. I really wanted to update sooner to reward you guys for it, too. But I had trouble getting the chapter _just_ right.

I am compensating this late update with the longest chapter I've ever written as a token of my appreciation to all who reviewed and read. I hope you enjoy, because this took me quite some time to write.

* * *

"This, dear brother, is the lovely Miss Elizabeth Bennet," Gia chimed, gently pushing Elizabeth a bit closer to her brother. "And Lizzy, this is Will Darcy," she finished with a bright smile.

Gia cast Elizabeth a glance as if she was anticipating Elizabeth to make the speech she previously did. Elizabeth caught Gia's expectant look and forced a smile across her face.

"It is both a _pleasure_ and _honor_ to be working in _your _company, Sir," Elizabeth addressed with a slight touch of sarcasm she hoped nobody would notice.

Will merely nodded and returned the slightest hint of a smile Elizabeth could barely make out. He seemed a bit perturbed, though his countenance reflected a great effort to appear calm and unaffected. Uncomfortably, she shifted her feet and glimpsed a few women staring at her, their eyes seething with envy. To her side, Gia blinked rapidly, trying to think of something to fill the silence with.

A few awkward moments later, Sean popped up behind them. Elizabeth breathed a sigh of relief. As long as Sean was there, she knew there would be at least some sort of conversation.

"So I see you've finally met your boss," Sean began. Turning to Will, he added, "Lizzy's been _very_ anxious about meeting you."

Will returned his cousin's comment with a stiff nod.

"Oh for heaven's sake, please tell me that your vocabulary consists of something more than a few nods. You're putting an awful shame on your professors at Harvard," Sean scolded disapprovingly.

"Oh really?" Will responded nonchalantly.

"Ah," Sean began with a wink at Elizabeth, "this is why my dear cousin will grow old by himself."

Turning to Will, he added, "If you ever become one of those old and sadistically paranoid men ready to take a whack at anyone with your cane, I'll have to—"

"Sean!" Gia interrupted, casting a glare at her cousin.

"Oh sorry," Sean muttered, slightly blushing in embarrassment as he quickly glanced from Elizabeth to Will. "Right—err…so I'll leave you guys to it and drop by later."

Passing Elizabeth, he murmured into her ear. "Twenty bucks if you can make Will crack a smile."

Elizabeth smirked. "Deal."

A few moments after Sean left, Gia excused herself to find her husband, leaving Elizabeth and Will alone.

Elizabeth's eyes wandered around the room, momentarily pausing longingly at the dancing room where all the fun was taking place. After a couple seconds of hesitation, she ventured a proposal.

"Do you want to go in and dance?" She winced, half afraid yet half curious to see what his reaction would be.

"No." he replied stiffly.

At Elizabeth's raised eyebrows for an explanation, he added, "I don't dance."

"And what a shame that is," she replied. "You should try some time. It's fun."

Will shrugged before fixing his gaze somewhere beyond her. "I'm not the type."

"So then what type are you?" Elizabeth questioned before narrowing her eyes. She forgot all about Sean's bet and turned to Will with biting cynicism.

"Wait, no need to tell me, because I already know. You're one of those types who wouldn't give a damn if the sky came crashing down. Armageddon could plague the world and you won't even notice."

"Ouch."

For a split second, Elizabeth thought she'd offended him. But after studying him closely for a brief moment, she realized that he was merely amused. Angry that he was speaking with a mixture of sarcasm and indifference, she narrowed her eyes again.

"_I'm not a circus animal who's going to do flips for your entertainment. Will Darcy, watch yourself, or I am seriously going to piss you off."_

Silence passed between them and Elizabeth was left once again to search for another topic.

"So…you graduated from Harvard?" she asked, trying to make her tone sound as amiably as she could.

"Yes." Although his answer was short, Elizabeth caught a sense of pride that echoed in his answer. Apparently, Will was proud to be associated with the school.

"And I'm sure that your highly sophisticated monosyllabic answers made you top of your class," she remarked, sending a quick glance towards Will's direction.

He shrugged. "If you say so."

Elizabeth crossed her arms and a scornful look crossed her face. "If only you talked as little in court as you are now, you would have saved me a lot of trouble," she said.

"Well, seeing as though I'm not in court, I'm free to act as I please," replied Will, wincing when he heard Elizabeth mention him being in court.

Elizabeth clapped her hands in mock approval. "Bravo, Mr. Darcy. I see that you have finally decided to move beyond three worded answers. You have no idea how honored I am to be present during this rare occasion."

She eyed Will and saw that his lips slightly quirked.

"Ah, so you aren't totally immune to some sense of humor," she observed, chancing a glace at Will. "Hard to imagine that you just might be capable of a smile or laugh."

Will shrugged. "If it's something worth laughing at, I will."

"Well, I'm sorry if nothing I've said this evening deserved a laugh," said Elizabeth sarcastically, "I will be more than happy to give a grand salute to the next person who can."

"And I'm sorry if everyone you talk to has to constantly be either smiling or laughing."

Elizabeth snorted. "Better talking to _those_ people than to a wall."

"Yeah, because it's just _so_ fun talking to delusional people in great need of narcotic treatment," he replied, his eyes daring Elizabeth to throw another retort back at him.

At that very precise moment, the lights flickered and the music in the other room faded. Something was wrong. Elizabeth and Will consequently forgot about their bickering and turned their heads toward the banquet hall.

A few moments later, someone was heard making an announcement in the room. Outside, Will and Elizabeth listened with curiosity. Apparently, the power outlets had gone out for a reason unknown, and the guests were urged to amuse themselves while the problem was being fixed.

Elizabeth, stunned that such an unexpected thing could happen, stared blankly at Will. Immediately, she was drawn in by his shade of light blue eyes. Will, who was as equally surprised, looked straight back at her.

They locked their gazes until Sean turned up by the door again a few seconds later. He glanced nervously from Will to Elizabeth, wondering why they were looking at each other like that. Finally, he decided to speak.

"Ahem…either you guys have decided to engage in a staring contest or—"

"What do you want, Sean?" Will questioned, breaking the eye contact with a roll of his eyes as he unceremoniously cut his cousin off.

"You to come and join the festivities," he promptly replied before continuing. "It looks like Monica, Daniel, and some others have taken charge of the entertainment section while the problem's being figured out."

Will scoffed. "You're kidding."

Monica and Daniel were notoriously known for embarrassing people without hesitation or thought.

"Nope." Sean shook his head and gave Will a crooked smile.

"So what am I supposed to do?" Will asked, lifting his eyebrows.

"Join," Sean said, "Like any proper gentleman should."

"Who said I was a gentleman?" Will asked with a snort, looking away as if he didn't want to speak to Sean anymore.

With a sigh, Sean turned to Elizabeth.

"What say you, Lizzy?"

Elizabeth's mouth slipped into a sly smile. There was no way she'd skip out on a chance to make Will miserable. It was never too early to start pay back time.

"Sure, sounds like fun," she answered with an innocent shrug, silently enjoying her taste of victory when she saw Will's grimace.

"Ah, the date has spoken," said Sean with an appreciative nod towards Elizabeth's direction. "It's necessary for Will to join anyways. He's head of the company, and it's only polite if he cooperates with the rest of us."

Will groaned.

"No way," Will said, crossing his arms with a frown on his face. "No way Jose."

"Yes way." Sean laughed. "Too bad Jose can't save you, 'cause you're going in."

Shoving a very reluctant Will through the door, Sean began to explain the activities while Elizabeth followed closely behind.

"So they've split people up into two different groups. One for couples, the other for singles. You guys will be joining the singles group unless you want to—" Sean stopped, a smug look overtaking his face.

Will shot Sean a nasty look. "Just get to the point, will you?"

"Well I'd get there if you'd walk faster," Sean retorted, giving Will one last push. "Okay, here you are. Monica will take care of you now. Have fun," he finished with a big wave of his hand.

"What?" Will asked, whipping around. "Where are you—"

It was too late, for Sean had already disappeared into another crowd.

"The idiot ditched me on purpose, he's supposed to be here. He's single," Will muttered angrily to himself.

As a crowd of singles gathered and sat themselves down in a big circle, Will realized that Elizabeth had left his side to sit on the other side. Ignoring her actions, he decided not to join her.

Soon afterwards, Monica arrived with an excited look on her face. As soon as Will saw her walking in with a big empty bottle of wine in her hands, he made a mental note to hold off her promotion.

"_A big bottle and a circle full of people…this better not be—_"

"Spin the bottle," Monica began, "Is what we're going to play."

Will's eyes widened and his jaws nearly dropped. A mixture of cheers and groans echoed throughout the crowd. Will found himself resisting the urge to hide his head in his hands.

"_Come on, people. This is a year-end party, not middle school," _he thought with disapproval, his mind turning back to the last time he played the game.

An unpleasant sensation crept up his body as he remembered a demanding Caroline Bingley purposely shifting the bottle so that it pointed directly towards him. Grimacing, he shook the memory out of his mind and drew his attention to Monica.

Monica had put the bottle in the center of the circle and sat herself down next to Elizabeth. Will glanced at Elizabeth to see her reaction. Although she first seemed surprised that such an adolescent game would be played, she soon looked open to the idea.

Sitting on the far side of the circle, Elizabeth did a quick surveying scan. To her surprise, Charlotte was nowhere to be seen. Concluding that Charlotte probably joined another group instead, she looked up at Monica to hear what she was saying.

Apparently, her version of spin the bottle was going to be different. Instead of having everyone kiss the person the bottle spins to, different activities were to be drawn out of a bag. The two people would have to act accordingly to whatever command was drawn.

Starting a couple people away from Elizabeth, Steve was the first one to go. When the bottle stopped in front of Laura, the pair watched anxiously as a piece of paper was drawn from a bag.

Monica flipped the paper around and showed it to the crowd. Written clearly on the paper were the words 'Cha-cha'. The crowed hooted and cheered, egging the pair on. Flustered and embarrassed, the two shyly danced to a subtle rendition of the cha-cha.

Such went on, and Elizabeth watched with good humor. She was amused on how different each activity was. All one lucky woman had to do was give a simple hug, while a short and tiny man had no choice but to carry a plump woman around in a big circle.

Laughing uncontrollably at a guy who had to get on his knees and passionately perform a serenade, Elizabeth barely noticed how quickly it was getting to be her turn. Before she knew it, a hand tapped on her shoulder and the bottle was being shoved towards her.

Elizabeth took the bottle, closed her eyes, and spun it clockwise with as much strength as she could. The bottle twirled 'round and 'round in mesmerizing whirls with Elizabeth squirming excitedly in wonder of who it would stop at. As the bottle slowed, Elizabeth held back a squeal. The bottle's spinning momentum was quickly diminishing, and every twirl slowed its rotation. Elizabeth followed the bottle's movements, holding back her breath. Looking up, she saw that the tip of the bottle was not far away from a particularly good-looking guy.

"_Just a little further," _she urged, finding herself crossing her fingers.

Taking one more detailed glance at the handsome man, she soon realized that he was seated right next to Will. Before long, she found herself wishing for the opposite.

Elizabeth's eyes widened with horror as realization struck her. The bottle was going to go right past the hot guy and…

"Stop," she heavily muttered under her breath. "Stop, stop, stop, _please_ stop."

And after a short pause, "Oh, _shit_."

The tip of the bottle pointed to none other than Will Darcy.

Elizabeth's mouth fell open and Will looked flabbergasted. In a crowd of thirty people, it never crossed Elizabeth's mind that the bottle could land on the one person she wanted to avoid. If the situation had been less serious, Elizabeth would have laughed at the irony of it all. Her plan of forcing Will into doing something he didn't want had backfired magnificently on her.

Maybe, she thought bitterly, the next activity would include some roundhouse kicking.

When people saw that their executive manager had been chosen, they began to shout and cheer as loudly as ever. Elizabeth reluctantly stepped into the circle and saw Will being half pushed into it.

Slowly, Elizabeth saw Monica reach into the bag. When the paper was drawn, she saw Monica's face turn into a sly grin as the crowd loudly demanded to see the activity.

When the paper was turned around and made clear for everyone to see, Elizabeth's knees nearly gave out on her. Written unmistakably in ink were four letters Elizabeth never wanted to see again: Kiss.

Dumbstruck, Will glanced at Elizabeth and saw that she had the same stunned expression plastered on her face. He shot Elizabeth a hopeless look as the crowd began to chant, "Kiss, kiss, kiss," loudly with enthusiasm.

Will narrowed his eyes. Didn't his employees learn a while ago _not_ to mess with him? The only people who dared to tease him were Sean and on rare occasions, Gia.

Their noisy cheers soon caught the attention of neighboring groups and the circle got bigger as people tried to squeeze in to see what was going on. Elizabeth's face drained of color and she stood in the center of the circle, unable to move. Her ears pounded with the beating of the heart as the 'ooh's and 'ahh's got louder and louder. She turned her gaze to the floor and shook her head violently, trying to filter out everything that was going on around the room, everyone's attention focused entirely on her and Will.

Suddenly, she felt a strong hand gently touch her arm and looked up to find Will Darcy standing right in front of her. She gasped and involuntarily withdrew her arm. She'd never stood this closely to him before. Meeting his eyes, she found herself taking in every bit of Will's facial features. Although his face was not completely flawless, it was lined with all the right kinds of masculinity along with a slight hint of innocent boyishness.

For a split second, Elizabeth almost found herself completely willing to kiss the man before her.

Will, looking as flustered as she was, opened his mouth nervously to speak.

"Well—err…if you don't want to, it's perfectly okay with me," he managed to say, his face turning bright red.

Elizabeth thought hard for a moment, hearing the intensity of the cheering crowd significantly increase as more people continued to join. She'd always hated people who were bad sport, and she certainly didn't want to be thought of as a party pooper. So then she came up with the conclusion: one kiss was not going to kill her.

"Let's just get it over with," she breathed, eyeing Will closely.

She could have sworn she saw the corners of his mouth threatening to crease into a smile. However, he appeared to have caught himself and gave her a curt nod instead. Her heart pounded furiously in her chest and she was almost certain that Will could hear how fast it was beating.

Slowly, he leaned in and dipped his head down. Elizabeth held her breath. She closed her eyes and allowed his lips to meet hers. His lips gently brushed Elizabeth's and their chaste kiss lasted for a fleeting second. Cheers and yelps erupted from the crowd, but Will didn't seem to notice. When they pulled apart, Elizabeth noticed something different about Will's face.

He was smiling.

There was something special with Will's face when he smiled, Elizabeth observed. Every part of his face seemed to go along with it, brightly illuminating the bit of boyish pertinence that was once hard to distinguish. Will looked like a completely different person, his usual sharp and piercing eyes softening into playful twinkles that bounced radiance off his face. Elizabeth wondered why he didn't smile more often.

For a moment, Elizabeth had almost forgotten her contempt for Will—he seemed like a totally different guy outside of court. But when raw memories surfaced in her mind again, she reminded herself who and what he was, and became resolute on biting back her smile. Instead, she gave a quick nod to him and turned to exit the room.

Unfortunately, Sean thwarted her grand escape and caught her. Sean had seen it all, and immediately tugged on Elizabeth's arm as she walked away from the crowd, turning her around so that she was facing him.

"Well, well, well," Sean began with a smirk. "Not bad for a first date, eh? Not bad at all," he finished, clucking his tongue.

"Shut up," Elizabeth irritably answered, epiphany dawning on her that everyone had seen her kiss the CEO of the company.

"_You_ want _me_ to shut up about all of this? Hah. This is the best thing that's happened all year. You're going to be the talk of the century."

"Why?" Elizabeth asked, defiantly crossing her arms.

Sean laughed. "You've got to be the first girl Will's kissed in let's see…half a decade?"

"So?" asked Elizabeth with a roll of her eyes. "It's not my fault no one else wants to kiss him unless they're forced to."

"Or maybe I just keep away from women who do nothing but offend me," said a deep voice behind her.

Elizabeth held back a glare and breathed heavily. Why was Will following her around?

"Oh, then what a perfect match; we share the same talent of insulting people," Elizabeth scoffed, "Although you have a particular talent on eavesdropping."

Sean glanced back and forth between Elizabeth and Will before finally declaring, "What an interesting way of flirting you guys have got going."

Will and Elizabeth both shot Sean a shut-up-or-die look. Clearly, Sean was misunderstanding the entire affair. Elizabeth was not flirting with Will; she was working hard to keep her cover intact and remain cool in her temper. Elizabeth had no idea why Will had decided to join her again, but decided to keep silent.

Soon enough, Gia made her way through the crowd and found them. When Elizabeth saw Gia, she immediately found Charlotte standing a little beyond Gia talking to someone. Who she was talking to, Elizabeth could not tell. But that didn't stop her from calling out Charlotte's name.

"Charlotte!" Elizabeth called, waving her hand over her head. "Over here!"

Upon hearing her name, Charlotte turned her head and her eyes lit up when she saw her friend enthusiastically waving. Elizabeth smiled as Charlotte made her way over. Her smile, however, promptly disappeared when she saw the man trailing behind Charlotte.

"Miss Bennet, it is a pleasure to see you again."

The voice that spoke sounded all too familiar. Soon enough, Elizabeth found herself face to face with Mr. Collins. Before Elizabeth had the time to respond, Collins had already moved on to someone else.

Elizabeth gasped. Collins had seen Will.

"Mr. Darcy! What a surprise to met you here!" Mr. Collins exclaimed, excitedly sticking out his hand.

Will looked at Collins and his face drained of color as he completely ignored Collins's offer to shake hands.

"You do remember me, don't you? In court?" Mr. Collins continued on, oblivious to Will and Elizabeth's wide-eyed expressions.

Charlotte smiled at Collins and turned to Will. "You guys know each other?" she asked, pointing back and forth between the two men.

Will nodded hesitantly.

Elizabeth held her breath. She had a feeling that it was coming. The delicate bubble was about to break.

"I'm Miss Bennet's divorce lawyer," he began with a heavy sense of self-importance, pointing pompously to himself. "Mr. Darcy is the lawyer of Mr. Wickham, Miss Bennet's ex-husband."

Gia gasped and Sean's froze, both aghast.

Will looked away and Elizabeth groaned. The stupid old dingbat had blown it all.

As the truth slowly sank into Sean, he returned to his senses and pointed a finger at Will.

"_You're_ the asshole?" he asked unbelievingly, narrowing his eyes. Gia stood silently next to Sean, afraid to speak.

"I—what—I beg your pardon?" Will asked, clearly confused until he realized that Elizabeth must have told Sean and Gia some level of her situation.

Sean ignored his cousin's remark and turned to Elizabeth.

"Lizzy, he's…is he really…"

"Yeah." Elizabeth answered, cutting off Sean's stuttering. "Now the cat's out of the bag."

"And you," Sean gasped; now pointing at Elizabeth with his eyes widening significantly.

"You kissed _him_?"

"Yeah. Bad luck on my part." Elizabeth shrugged and looked hopelessly at Charlotte.

Sensing that the situation was about to get out of control, Charlotte caught Elizabeth's eye and nodded. She immediately pulled Collins away to another room, saying that she wanted to dance now that the music was back on.

The three of them stood, staring at each other, not knowing what to say. Finally, Gia decided to say something.

"Lizzy, you went on with this the entire time? You should have said something."

Elizabeth sighed.

"I know. But you both just seemed so excited for me to meet him, and I didn't want to disappoint you guys. Plus, I didn't want to ruin anyone's night."

"Lizzy, don't be afraid to say anything next time. Gia and I totally would have understood," Sean said, his tone softening.

When he addressed Will again, however, his tone was harsh.

"Is it true? You helped that George Wickham?" he demanded, glaring at Will.

Will had not choice but to nod. "You don't understand," he began, trying to ease his cousin's anger. "I did it for a reason."

Sean snorted. "There will never be a reason good enough to help George Wickham."

"Come," he said to Elizabeth, "You can be my date for the rest of the night."

Sean shot a dirty look at Will before wrapping his arm around Elizabeth and leading her into the dance room.

Alone in the room with Gia, he attempted to clear himself from blame.

"Listen, it was something that I had to do, I—"

"You helped him." Gia cut him off, sounding hurt.

Will heard the tremor in his sister's voice and winced uncomfortably. He didn't mean to hurt her. He'd only meant to protect her.

"What were you thinking?" she asked, throwing him a tearful glare.

Seeing her brother's inanimate reaction, she turned and stalked off into the crowd.

Will stood alone in the corner of the room, arms crossed defensively. He wanted to leave, but knew that it would be impossible. As the CEO, he still needed to make a speech towards the party's end.

For the rest of the evening, he busied himself conversing with his board of business advisors, not bothering to show interest in any other matter.

Sean and Gia stirred Elizabeth cleanly away from him the rest of the time, though Will still saw Elizabeth dancing with Sean a couple times throughout the evening.

Despite the miserable night she must have had, Will was surprised to see that she continued to smile and laugh. She was dancing in a carefree manner, as if nothing had gone against her wishes that night. As if her night had been perfect. Will took note of it as a pang of guilt and regret coursed through him.

Sighing heavily, Will tried to shake it off the best he could. What he did was necessary. Gia's reputation had to be protected at all cost. There was no way he could let one man tarnish the Darcy name even in the slightest. The Darcy name was something he'd always fight to uphold.

And that was that.

* * *

a/n: I hope nothing was too unrealistic. The one big debate I had was whether or not I should have put the 'spin the bottle' scene in there.

Leave a review and tell me what you think, please! As always, thanks for reading.

And I'm also getting a bit tired of editing everything on my own. I think I'm going to start looking for a Beta reader. If anyone's interested, please PM me.

* * *


	11. Second Meeting

a/n: Sorry for a long wait. But the good news is that I've finally graduated from high school, and summer has officially begun. I hope you enjoy this chapter!

* * *

He tossed his keys onto the table, unbuttoned his shirt, and wearily made his way up the stairs. Trudging upwards, he heard the scurrying of eager paws and looked down to see an enthusiastic greeter happily licking his right hand.

"Hey Koda," Will muttered, in a tone completely opposite the mood of his German shepherd. He withdrew his hand and went into his room to change. It had been a long day.

Thoughts engulfed his mind as he threw himself onto the bed. He turned on the TV and surfed through the channels, but found it hard to pay attention to anything that was on. His mind drifted and he tiredly rubbed his forehead. It seemed unbelievable how small the world was.

His thoughts immediately shifted to Elizabeth's lawyer and he frowned. Who know the man would be lame enough to associate himself with everyone he knew? Thanks to Collins, he now had to go around and apologize to everyone. Sean was angry with him, Gia nearly burst into tears that night, and Elizabeth avoided him like the plague. And where was George in the midst of all of this?

Turning to his bedside table, Will picked up his phone and dialed Gia's number. He sighed heavily at the ring tone, hoping that she would pick up. It was late, and Gia was an early sleeper.

"Hello?" asked a deep voice on the other end.

"Keith? It's Will."

Whispers were heard in the background before a quiet 'I'll talk to him' could be made out.

"Will, it's late and you should be in bed." came Gia's voice.

"I am in bed," he answered, catching the exasperation in his sister's tone.

After a short pause, he continued, "How are you feeling? If you're tired, I can call you back in the morning."

Gia mumbled something indiscernible, causing Will to speak with concern.

"Are you okay? I was hoping that I could explain the entire thing to you."

"Will," Gia wearily began, "I don't need an explanation. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that George was trying to blackmail you with whatever happened in the past between him and me. Quite frankly, I'd rather not hear the details of what he planned on doing. It's that simple for him: a couple pictures he leaks out to the tabloids and we'll surface once again as the 'Disreputable Darcys'."

Will raised his eyebrows in surprise. Gia had caught on quicker than he thought she would. "And so my intelligent sister speaks."

"And so your intelligent sister is telling you that you owe no one an explanation or apology more than you do to Elizabeth."

"How am I supposed to do anything if she won't even talk to me?" asked Will, not exactly wanting to deal with Elizabeth. Knowing her, she would sooner have his head on a pike than forgive him.

"You're the smart one with the multi-million company, so figure it out," said Gia, "Besides, you'll have all of winter vacation to think of something because Lizzy's out of town."

"Oh," Will answered with a pleasant nod. "Good."

After a pause, Gia asked, "So you'll be coming by for Christmas dinner, right?"

"Yeah, just call me later and let me know the time," Will replied before yawning and hanging up the phone.

Things were a little better than he thought. He wouldn't have to see Elizabeth for at least another two weeks. But as much as he didn't want to see her, he couldn't help but think back to their kiss earlier that night. He didn't know what it was, but he felt something when she stood that closely in front of him, her eyes shut closed and her movement gentle. It was as if an invisible force drew him in and entrapped him in an experience more pleasant than he would have expected.

But no, he told himself. It couldn't have been love or even the slightest hint of it. He was probably just relieved that he didn't end up kissing a complete stranger. Besides, what did he know about Elizabeth Bennet aside from the fact that she hated his guts? Turning off the lamp, he shook off all his thoughts, sank underneath his bed covers, and fell asleep.

* * *

Elizabeth sat sprawled out on the couch, arms tucked behind her head in the living room of her sister's apartment in New York. She had arrived a couple days ago. The place, though small, was immaculately clean. In the kitchen, Jane stood over the counter, scooping spoonfuls of ice cream into two bowls.

"So what's going on tomorrow?" Elizabeth asked, casually crossing one foot over the other.

"We're going to have a big day," Jane answered with a brilliant smile, plopping a spoonful of ice cream into the bowl.

"A big day as in scrubbing the toilets clean twice over or hand-washing all of your curtains?"

Jane tossed her head back and laughed. Elizabeth loved it when her sister laughed. It always seemed to spread out and warm the room.

"Neither," Jane answered with a giggle, "Honestly Liz, I'm really not the neat freak you make me out to be. Just because the Parmesan chicken in my fridge looks nothing like the hairy spinach blob in yours, it doesn't make me the goddess of cleanliness."

Elizabeth snorted. "Are you going to give me another lecture on how if I kept a list with dates of everything I buy, it'll help me keep track of when to throw things out?"

"I will if I find the tiniest hint of mold in your fridge the next time I visit," Jane replied, handing Elizabeth the ice cream.

Elizabeth took a bite and her lips loosened into a smile of content as she felt the ice cream deliciously melt in her mouth.

"Or you can just remind me to read the expiration labels," she said with another mouthful, slightly wincing from the freezing sensation on her tongue.

"One of these days, you'll thank me," Jane said, shaking her head and throwing her sister a hopeless look. "Anyways, you will be meeting my boyfriend tomorrow."

The corners of Elizabeth's mouth twisted into a smirk and her eyes widened with interest.

"Ah, the boyfriend, eh? I was wondering when I'd be meeting him. Four days in New York and not a single sighting. I was beginning to wonder if he—"

"Liz," Jane half groaned, interrupting her sister. "_Please_ be nice to him."

Elizabeth gasped and pretended to look offended. "I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about."

Jane raised her eyebrows and gave Elizabeth a piercing look. Elizabeth's eyes wandered around the room and she tried to look as innocent as she could, though knowing all the while exactly what Jane was referring to.

"If you do anything to Charlie tomorrow I'll send you on the next flight back to LA," said Jane, crossing her arms.

"You can't blame me for what happened last time. I really didn't like the guy," Elizabeth said defensively, pursing her lips.

"You didn't like the guy because he accidentally spilled a glass of orange juice on you," Jane said with a roll of her eyes.

"He spilled juice all over me and blamed it all on the sun being too much in his eyes. We should all just march around with sunglasses now, or who knows how many more drinks our elbows will spill."

"Lizzy…"

"He didn't even bother to apologize. Oh, and did I mention that it was cloudy that day?"

"Yeah, okay, I get it Liz—the guy made you angry. But that does _not_ mean that you can go and 'accidentally' slam his fingers with the car door." Jane said, looking at Elizabeth with a disapproving gaze.

Elizabeth threw her hands up in the air. "Fine. You win. All I'm saying is that the guy better be decent, or he's not good enough for you. My job is to make sure that you get a guy who deserves you. Capiche?"

Jane answered with a tiny smiled and nodded. "You'll like Charlie," she said, a dreamy look overtaking her face. "He's…different. And in a good way."

Elizabeth laughed at the giddy look on her sister's face. "You better be right, Jane," she teased, "or don't blame me if the date ends with ten broken fingers."

* * *

"Wait. Let me get this straight," Will said, as he looked at his friend, his eyes widening in horror.

"You want _me_ to go on a date with you?" he asked, pointing awkwardly at himself, jaw agape.

"It's not going to be that bad. Jane's been my girlfriend for almost two months now, so I think it'll be safe to introduce her to my best friend," said Charles with a shrug before adding, "as disagreeable as you can be."

"Friend introductions can come later," argued Will, crossing his arms. "I'm not about to go around sticking my nose into all of your relationships, you know."

"Will," Charles groaned. "Jane is bringing her sister tomorrow."

"So?" Will asked nonchalantly, "I'm sure you'll all make a great threesome together."

"You don't get it, do you?" asked Charles, gesturing wildly with his hands. "Not only will it be awkward, it can turn into a total nightmare. I have to equally address and impress _two_ people now," he finished, flashing two fingers around in front of his friend.

Will snorted and waved Charles's hand away. "And you've chosen to ask the perfect person to help you with this," he said sarcastically, "Because I'm just _so _good with social etiquette."

"Well if you came, it wouldn't be half as bad," Charles pleaded. "You can try entertaining the sister and it can be like a double date but not really kind of thing."

Will crossed his arms. He wasn't about to go on another date so soon after his last one had ended so catastrophically.

"No way," came his resolute answer.

"Jane's good looking," Charles said in a singsong voice, tapping Will's shoulders. "Which means her sister is nice and pretty too."

"Charlie that is a _ridiculous_ assumption."

Charles rolled his eyes. "It's not like you have anything better to do. You've been in New York for two days already and you're still hanging around here. We're showing Jane's sister around, so you might as well get off your lazy butt and do something useful."

"My lazy butt likes the couch that I'm currently sitting on very much," Will said, patting the spot next to him. "And it refuses to budge," he finished, sticking a finger into the air as if he was actually trying to make a decent point.

Charles sighed and looked at his friend directly. "Please, Will. What do you want me to do, get on my knees and beg you?"

"Are you asking me to help you or marry you?" Will grinned, scratching his chin thoughtfully. "Although now that I think about it, it'd be pretty neat to have you bowing at my feet. You may now commence," he declared, spreading his arm out in a welcoming gesture.

"Will!" Charles glared at his friend. "Of all times, you choose _now_ to joke around?" he asked, shooting Will a look of desperation.

Will rolled his eyes, a bit disappointed at himself for being so easily swayed. But then again, Charles looked so pitifully pathetic that he had to agree.

"Fine, I'll go with you," Will said, raising his hands in a manner of surrender. "I'll go with you."

Charles let out a sigh of relief. "Great!" he exclaimed, slapping Will on the back.

* * *

"So where are we going?" asked Elizabeth, throwing Jane a curious glance as she buttoned her winter coat.

"You're in New York," Jane laughed. "I'll let you take one guess."

"Um…Central Park?" Elizabeth said off the top of her mind. She had been to New York only once before when she was six, but never actually toured the place. Under Mrs. Bennet's insistence they, remained in Manhattan—mainly walking up and down on Fifth Avenue while Mr. Bennet, an engineer, spent the days marveling at the construction of the Empire State Building.

Jane shook her head. "I can show you around the park later if you'd like. But today, we're going to go see the Statue of Liberty."

Elizabeth shot her sister an odd look. "You and Charlie call going to see the Statue of Liberty a date?"

"Well, we both agree that it's a great shame for you to never have seen the most famous national monument," Jane answered with a shrug. "Anyways, I talked to Charlie last night," she continued, "and he said that he was bringing his friend who's also visiting. So we'll be showing you both around the city."

"Oh, I see," said Elizabeth, relieved that there would be another person to talk to. She'd been afraid that it would be awkward standing between her sister and her boyfriend, rolling along them like a third wheel.

"Don't worry, I think you'll like Ellis Island," Jane said with a sly smile. "I've seen a picture of Charlie's friend before, and I daresay that he is _very_ attractive," she finished, playfully nudging Elizabeth in the ribs.

Elizabeth laughed and opened the door. A burst of cold air blew into her face as she stepped out into the snow. Jane hurried over to the car and the two quickly got in, seeking shelter from the icy breeze.

When they arrived, Elizabeth and Jane stepped out of the car, both rubbing their hands together as their breaths coming in frosty puffs.

"Where are we meeting them?" asked Elizabeth, wrapping the coat around her tighter.

"Charlie wanted us to meet him on the ferry because it's too cold to stand around and wait outside," answered Jane, signaling for Elizabeth to follow her.

On board the ferry, Elizabeth marveled at how so many people could fit comfortably within such a small area. Next to her, Jane's phone began to ring. Elizabeth idly observed as she watched Jane pick it up.

"They're here," she said excitedly, her cheeks glowing with a slight blush. Standing up, Jane hastily smoothed out her clothes and fixed her hair. Likewise, Elizabeth did the same.

Looking up, Elizabeth saw a redheaded man make his way through the crowd, casting Jane a smile both brilliant and shy.

"That's him," Jane whispered into her sister's ear. Next to her, Elizabeth could feel Jane straightening her posture.

Elizabeth nodded and friendly smiled at the man.

"Charles Bingley," he said in a warm and welcoming way, offering his hand.

"Elizabeth Bennet," she answered, "Very nice to meet you."

Out of the corner of her eyes, Elizabeth saw Jane beaming.

"I brought my friend with me," Charles said, looking about the room. "But I seem to have lost him." He frowned, continuing to jerk his head around.

"I'm sure he'll turn up," assured Jane, resting a hand on Charles's shoulder.

Elizabeth shuffled uncomfortably as she glanced between Jane and Charles. She had the slight feeling that the two of them would much rather be left alone.

Clearing her throat, she said, "If you don't mind, I'm going to go walk around this ferry and catch a glimpse of the view outside."

Jane nodded in consent, and Elizabeth slipped outside, catching a cool breath of air. There were very few people standing on the deck; most were inside the ferry, seated away from the cold. Looking around, she found a place where no one stood and decided go there and catch a panoramic view of the New York port.

Resting her arms on the wooden deck, she glanced around, letting the beauty of the nature and its blend of the city sink into her. After a few moments, the silence was disrupted by a loud rustling of papers. Disgruntled, Elizabeth turned around to find someone sitting crossed legged on the bench, reading a copy of the New York Times in a sprawled out manner that entirely covered his face.

"It's a shame that some don't enjoy the spectacular view out here," Elizabeth said loudly, sending a disapproving glance at the stranger.

The man behind the papers cleared his throat, telling Elizabeth that she'd been heard. However, he chose to turn a few more pages and completely ignore her otherwise.

"And even more of a shame that such stilled peace would be disturbed by the loud noise of turning papers," she muttered angrily to herself, turning her head back just as the man put down his papers.

Out of the corner of her eyes, Elizabeth thought she'd seen someone familiar. She blinked, not bothering to validate that thought until curiosity overcame her to actually see whom the annoying person was. Hoping to catch a tiny glimpse, she slightly turned her head. When her eyes focused on the man, she gasped and her eyes widened in surprise.

"YOU!" she yelped, thrusting her finger out at Will. "First at the party and now here! What the hell is wrong with you? Why are you following me around?"

When Will looked up and saw Elizabeth, his jaw dropped.

"I—what—following you?" he sputtered, setting his newspapers aside. "Why would I—"

Elizabeth let out a frustrated groan, turned around, and began marching towards the door to go back inside.

Will got up from his seat and followed her. "Elizabeth? Wait—I need to talk to you!" he called after her.

Elizabeth whipped back around and glared at him. "I'll tell you what you need—you need to stay away from me," she said angrily, pushing the doors opened and disappearing inside.

Panting, she sat down next to Jane.

"Lizzy, are you okay?" asked Jane, casting curious look at her sister. "You look exhausted."

"I'm fine. I just—ran into someone I knew. That's all," Elizabeth wearily answered, looking around, glad to see that Will hadn't found her.

When the ferry came to a lurching stop, Elizabeth got off the boat and paid only half attention to what Charles was saying to her. The other half busily tried to figure out why Will had been on the ferry. The answer to her question, however, was answered soon enough.

"Will!" exclaimed Charles, ushering his friend over. "There you are! Come and meet my girlfriend and her sister."

Elizabeth groaned again and turned to look at Jane. There was no way she'd be able to play nice again.

"Sorry, Jane, I'll find you and explain later. Don't worry about me," she murmured before turning on her heels and storming the opposite way.

Charles threw Jane and Will a confused look while Jane stared blankly back at them.

"You two enjoy yourselves. Nice meeting you, Jane," Will said before turning to rush after Elizabeth.

Jogging to catch up with Elizabeth, he finally reached her. His jog was reduced to quick and rapid strides as Elizabeth continued to storm onwards without paying any attention to him. Will called out her name and his face turned bright red as tourists pointed wildly at him, curiously watching the scene.

Finally, turning a corner, he put a hand on Elizabeth's shoulders and gently stopped her. Elizabeth tried to shrug him off, but his stern grip held her steady.

"Let go of me!" she furiously said, trying to brush him off.

"I will if you don't go running off again."

"What have I ever done to you? What do you want from me?" Elizabeth asked, shooting at piercing glare at Will.

"I have explanations that I need to make. And all I ask is that you hear me out," he said. "Afterwards, you don't have to speak to me ever again."

"I've heard enough in court, and I'm not interested." Elizabeth turned around and back faced him, crossing her arms.

"I have apologies to make," he quietly said behind her. "Please give me a chance to explain."

Elizabeth shook her head and began walking again.

"I will chase you around in circles if I have to," he said, following her. "Except that'll look very silly and childish—so let's not," he awkwardly finished as he dropped his arms to his sides, glancing at her and hoping that she'd turn around.

She did. But her eyes were narrowed and sparked with resentment as they met his face.

"Yeah right," she stated with a disbelieving snort.

"Hate to cut it to you, but just in case you haven't noticed, we're on an island. Whether or not you like it, you're stuck right here with me."

Elizabeth sighed and closed her eyes, trying to calm herself down. Will was right—they were on an island and there was no use trying to get away from him. She just need to get a grip of herself, hear him out, and then never have to speak to him again.

"Fine. I'll listen, but I'm not doing anymore than that," she said, sitting down on a side bench.

"Thanks." Will breathed a sigh of relief and emitted a small smile before sitting next to her.

* * *

a/n: About the next chapter...I'll be in Taiwan from July-August, joining my church mission team to help teach English to the kids over there. I'm not quite sure if I'll be able to have decent time to write or get internet access when I need it. So...about updates...the worst case scenario is that you guys won't get the next chapter until mid August (which is what I really hope won't happen). Best case scenario? Cross your fingers and hope that I'll be able to get chapter(s) up sometime in July overseas.

As always, please review & special thanks to my beta :)


	12. Darcy's Story

A/N: Sorry for such a long wait. Turns out, I didn't exactly have internet access or the time to write overseas. Anyways, here's the new chapter and I hope you guys enjoy it.

Sorry for any grammar/spelling mistakes--this has NOT yet gone through my Beta. Revisions will come later. I thought you guys might appreciate a sooner update instead of revisions.

* * *

Elizabeth sat herself down on a bench, facing the ocean. When Darcy sat down next to her, she uncomfortably scooted a few more inches in the other direction. Elizabeth was relieved when Darcy finally decided to break the heavy silence settling in.

"George and I were once best friends. We were as close as brothers," Darcy began softly, head bowed. "Gia used to worship him, and all three of us used to love being in each other's company. I thought we were simply lucky to have each other. I didn't know the real reason until later."

Elizabeth frowned. Gia certainly did not appear to like George that night when Will's cover had been blown. In fact, she seemed to be most furious at her brother helping George.

"Everything was fine until my freshman year in high school. That fall, George's father suddenly died of heart failure. I found out then that Mrs. Wickham had little reaction to her husband's death. In fact, she seemed relieved—as though an obstacle in front of her had been removed."

Elizabeth winced. She had a feeling of where the story was going, and she was sure it was going to somehow remind her of her own story.

"She began spending more time with my father. More and more, my father was disappearing during weekends and taking business trips that were much too long. My mom, very trusting of my father, never doubted him once where he had gone."

Turning to gaze at the ocean, Elizabeth looked as far as she could into the horizon, trying not to let Will's story affect her own emotions.

"I'd always looked up to my father. Although I knew he never loved my mom like she loved him, I admired him for sticking through everything. But that was before I learned that people couldn't be trusted. Through loopholes that my father left, I eventually found tangible proof that my father was having an affair with Mrs. Wickham. When I traced the facts I had discovered, they led me right back to George. He had known all along."

Will looked away and sighed before continuing again.

"I was hurt and angry at both George's betrayal and my father's infidelity. Frustrated, I dug deeper into the puzzle. The more answers I searched for, the more pieces I found. I soon learned that Mrs. Wickham and my father had a past before he and my mom were married. That past was torn apart when Mrs. Wickham's family forced her to marry George's father. Afterwards, my father was pushed in haste by his family to marry my mom. In the end, my mom fell in love with my father in a way he could not. And that was when I realized that luck had nothing to do with our families being so close. It was unrequited love that drew both of our families together."

Elizabeth leaned towards Will, intrigued by his story.

"When I found out everything I needed to know, I didn't feel like it was right for my mom to live in the shadows. So one day, I took every piece of proof I found, showed them to her, and explained everything. At first, she refused to believe me, but I suspected she was only in denial. Eventually, she gathered up the courage to confront my father. That confrontation was what captured the media's attention. Rumors spread like wildfire, claiming that my father had been harboring two decades worth of marital infidelity."

Frowning, Elizabeth took a deep breath. How she hated it when the media made large headlines of celebrities on their private lives. She sympathized with the Darcys, knowing that their wealth and status made it hard for them to hide from the critical eyes of the world.

"My father, seeing that the problem had been made extremely public, denied all accusations of him being in an affair. He was a traditional man, and to him, the most important things have always been business and the family name. My sister and I have always been taught to keep our family name clean, for business was passed down through it. Our family name equaled our reputation, and neither of those could be tarnished. In an attempt to keep our name reputable, my father cut off all ties from Mrs. Wickham and moved us across the states. Afterwards, Mrs. Wickham suffered from depression and committed suicide two years later."

Elizabeth gasped. She had not thought Darcy's connection with the Wickham family had been this deep.

"Orphaned and without a home, my father took pity on George and moved him into our house, where we gave him the spare room. I was ready to forgive George against the betrayal he once set on me, but I found that he was not ready to forgive me for the truth I had unveiled. He attributed the cause of his mother's death directly to me, since my father wouldn't have done anything had my mom not known. I sensed that George wanted to get even with me, but under the watchful eye of my mom, he didn't dare. After all, we were the only ones willing to put a roof over his head."

Reaching the next part of his story, Will seemed to have lost a bit of his composure. His shoulders slacked and his head was bowed lower. When he spoke, his voice was rougher.

"Things settled for a while, until I got a phone call from college one night that my parents had been in a car accident. I lost both my parents that night. I was twenty-one and Gia was seventeen. Left to care for a teenage sister and a troubled misfit, I was scared and had no idea what to do. I didn't want Gia under the care of my aunt, so I sent her off to boarding school to finish off her last two years of high school. Meanwhile, George in his sophomore year of junior college, was a mess. However, Gia failed to see the person he'd become. She refused to let go of the image she had of him back in our childhood days and was still in love with him. George, seeking revenge, decided to take advantage over that."

Elizabeth felt a surge of anger course through her and angrily blurted out, "He messed with Gia too?"

Will nodded. "It wasn't long before George started putting on acts for Gia, sending her flowers and all sorts of things, making Gia believe that he was in love with her. After he successfully wooed her, he slept with her. And right after that, he left and never came back. Gia, deeply hurt and heartbroken, came to me for help and confessed everything. I was shocked and immediately blamed myself for not keeping a closer watch on my sister. But what did I know of raising a teenager when I was barely out of the teenage years myself? Nothing. And that was where I failed."

Elizabeth looked at Will, suppressing the urge to put a comforting arm around him. Instead, she opted to say something encouraging.

"You didn't fail. If anything, you went beyond what you set out to do. Look at Gia today. She's strong, confident, and bold. How many women out there have a mind and heart like hers?"

Will turned to shoot Elizabeth a sidelong glace. And with a hint of a smile, replied, "Not many."

"You shouldn't hold yourself accountable for what happened. The one responsible for all this mess is George Wickham," said Elizabeth.

"Then you must know why I have no choice but to work as his lawyer."

At this, Elizabeth's gaze on Will hardened. Narrowing her eyes, she opened her mouth and said with a piercing glare, "Blackmail."

"Precisely," Will replied with a nod. "George has pictures from that night with Gia, and he threatened to sell them to the media and create big headlines of scandal if I refused to work on his case. Although it has been many years since the pictures were taken, the media feasts on anything given to them. They will work the past into the present and make something out of nothing. About one of the only things they do well, really."

Elizabeth gave Will a sympathizing smile. That was probably one of the reasons why she never wanted to be famous. Being a celebrity meant giving up one's private life.

Will returned her smile weakly and continued. "I suppose there is only one reason for George doing all of this. He wanted to make my sister suffer through what his mother did. He wanted to make Gia feel what his mother had felt when my father left her and never turned back."

Elizabeth shook her head. She couldn't believe that she was once married to this man, had once slept on the same bed and lived under the same roof as he. She was amazed yet disturbed by how well he had masked his true character under a façade that had her fooled the entire time she had been with him.

"I'm not using Wickham's blackmail as an excuse or justification to my behavior. My intentions were to protect Gia and what my father fought so hard for. My father's fight to keep our name clean led to Mrs. Wickham's unfortunate death. I wasn't about to let one person mess that all up," Will explained.

Elizabeth looked at Will thoughtfully. "I can't help but notice the irony of it all. George is willing to let his mother die in vain alongside his attempts to tarnish your family name. But all this time, he claims to be avenging his mother's death."

"Impressive thinking." Will slowly nodded, looking at Elizabeth before curiously asking, "English major?"

Elizabeth chuckled. "Yes."

"Ah…so you're one of those maniacs who analyze everything they see, hear, and read."

"Good that you know," Elizabeth casually replied, "so bear in mind that nothing _ever _gets around me."

"I noticed," Will grudgingly acknowledged with a shrug.

"Why so glum, Mr. Darcy? As a lawyer, I'm sure that nothing gets past you either. Especially when it comes around to how certain bank accounts function," Elizabeth ventured, shooting Will a sharp look.

"I'm sorry."

Elizabeth's head snapped up. Was the proud and arrogant Will Darcy apologizing to her? Although she sympathetically sided with his story, she never thought about changing her previous judgments she had made on him. Pride was not something to be so easily put aside without struggle. So why was he apologizing?

"I'm sorry," came the apology again. "When I first took up the case, I thought only about my family. I did not think of the innocent ones involved who I was doing injustice to. Growing up, I was taught to only look after those in my family circle. My determination to keep that principle intact led to another's sorrows," Will explained before turning to look Elizabeth directly in her face.

Meeting her eyes, he said with unmistakable sincerity, "Elizabeth, I truly am very sorry for all of this."

Truth be told, Elizabeth had no idea what to think. Was she going to forgive him for everything he had set against her based on one story? Was she going to put her trust in someone she barely knew? But then again, Will's apology did sound pretty sincere.

"_Hah,_" echoed a voice inside her mind, "_Did George Wickham not teach you anything?"_

Elizabeth blinked. Who was she to trust?

Seeing Elizabeth's hesitation, Will added, "I'm not asking you to forgive me. I just wanted you to understand everything behind the case. You don't have to forgive me if you don't want to. I understand."

Elizabeth thought it over. She wasn't about to forgive him right away. Since he was her boss, she was sure to run into him pretty often. She decided that she was going to carefully observe his actions and figure out exactly what kind of person he was. His actions would speak for everything. In the meanwhile, she didn't think it would hurt to lay off on him a bit.

"I'll forgive you when I'm ready," she finally answered in a stern voice. "No guarantees though," she added.

"It's okay. I understand. But we can maybe you know—like—," Will stated awkwardly as he scratched his head.

Elizabeth frowned, not exactly sure of what he was saying.

"Well, it'd be nice to not have an employee look like she wants to throw daggers at me every time I walk into the company," Will said, finally getting his words together.

Elizabeth smirked. _The guy wants us to start over, but doesn't have to guts to bluntly speak his mind._ She laughed to herself. She was going to get it out of him directly.

Pretending not to understand what Will hinted at, she said, "Of course, if you'd rather me gaze upon you with large, adoring eyes filled with love, awe, and admiration, I'll see what I can—"

"Can we start over from the beginning please?" Will interrupted, his face bright red.

Elizabeth smiled, nodded, and stuck out her hand.

"Elizabeth Bennet, classical literature graduate and book nerd at your service."

* * *

A/N: It's been a while, so here's a thought for you...I really like reviews. ;)


	13. New Years

A/N: Here's a special treat--the fastest update we've had in a very long time. Enjoy!

* * *

Elizabeth sat on Jane's bed and watched her sister fumble through her closet trying to pick out something to wear.

"Do I really have to go?" Elizabeth whined as she eyed her sister, throwing Jane an annoyed look.

"How many times do I have to say yes, Lizzy?" Jane answered, her voice impatient. The growing pile of messily discarded clothes on the floor was quite unlike Jane's neat and usual self. "Charlie invited both of us and it'll be rude if you don't show up. Besides, do you really want to spend New Years Eve alone?"

Elizabeth shrugged. "I don't care. Besides, it's not like I have anything to wear. I didn't bring any formal clothes with me."

"You can wear one of my dresses," Jane offered, pointing to the heap of clothes on the floor.

"I'm not going to wear something that you don't want to wear," Elizabeth objected, eyeing the mound with distaste.

"Well then come and look for something yourself," Jane grumbled, hurriedly moving on to another row of clothes.

Elizabeth rarely saw her sister go through such great lengths to find a single outfit and she admitted that the sight rather alarmed her. Sighing, Elizabeth walked over to join Jane. Obviously this Charles guy meant enough to Jane for her to act in such a way.

"Aha!" Jane triumphed, holding up a beautiful light blue dress. "Just the thing I was looking for."

Nodding in agreement, Elizabeth said, "That will go perfectly with the occasion."

Jane smiled. "Now let me help you find something," she offered, rummaging through the closet with a thoughtful look. "What about this?" she asked.

Elizabeth looked at the dress her sister was holding up and frowned. "Isn't that a bit too—I don't know—risqué?"

Jane shrugged, studying the dress. "I don't think it's _that_ bad. Are you worried that it's too low-cut or something?"

"I hardly know the people there, Jane. It's not like I'm out on a special date or have guys to impress or anything," Elizabeth answered.

"All right," Jane agreed, stepping out of the closet. "I'm going to go fix my hair now."

Finally, Elizabeth settled on a blouse and a skirt. The outfit, she decided, was simple yet chic in its own way.

When Elizabeth stepped out to see her sister, she gasped. Jane had curled her hair. Magnificent golden curls dropped beyond her shoulders, rippling and spiraling with subtlety and grace. The hairstyle matched the dress perfectly, as if one couldn't go without the other.

"Jane, you look beautiful," Elizabeth exclaimed.

Jane nervously sighed. "Let's hope Charlie thinks the same way."

* * *

Ever since their last meeting at Ellis Island, Elizabeth spent a lot of her time thinking about Will Darcy. As much as she tried to chase those thoughts out her mind, it was undeniable in the end that his character intrigued her. But as much as she tried to break down his personality, nothing she reassured herself with could prepare her for their next meeting.

Charles lived in a spacious penthouse in downtown Manhattan. Although Jane had described the place to her sister many times, Elizabeth never managed to piece the details together into one congruent picture. When she stepped through the doors and took a quick glimpse around the place, she knew why.

The apartment was beautiful in every aspect from its furniture to its decor, the overall design modern and extremely becoming. She had been to a few expensive houses and mansions before, but she'd never been in one that was occupied by a guy who was single. Needless to say, Elizabeth found it hard to believe that only one person lived in such a grand residence.

Her thoughts were disrupted as Charles came up to greet them.

"Jane," he said with a brilliant smile. "I've been waiting for you," he finished, taking Jane's hand. Elizabeth saw her sister's cheeks brighten with a crimson glow.

"Lizzy," Charles nodded in her direction, "Nice to see you again. Now you two need to come with me, because we have some important people to meet."

Elizabeth trailed behind her sister and Charles, reluctantly following. She felt out of place and uncomfortable in a room filled with mostly Charles's relatives and his company executives.

"I'd like you to meet my family," Charles said, pointing to two women standing by the television. Elizabeth glanced at the women and saw that Will Darcy was at the side of the shorter one, a grimace on his face.

"These are my sisters, Victoria and Caroline," Charles announced, beckoning his sisters to step forward and meet the guests.

Jane smiled politely and introduced herself while Elizabeth merely stood by her sister's side and watched. She quickly noticed that Victoria had little to say while her sister Caroline hardly kept her mouth shut.

"I'm the head fashion critic for _Fashion_ _À la mode_," Caroline began, "surely you've heard of the magazine—it's the very top in the business."

As she glanced at Caroline's attire, Elizabeth held back a snort and smirked. Winter was a time to deck out in thick jackets, but no sub-zero temperature should be used as an excuse to dress up like an ugly Yeti. Caroline's coat was a tangled mess of white, woolly fur that exploded in all different directions. It looked like she had attacked the Abominable Snowman, skinned his fluffy hide, and sewed it into a jaunty fur jacket. If anything, it was Cruella Devil's latest fashion à la mode.

"That is an amazing dress," Caroline examined, clapping her hands together before pointing at Jane, "Outstanding tailoring that absolutely flatters your body."

Jane smiled and with a small voice piped, "Thank you." Charles whispered something in Jane's ear and led her away.

"And—" Caroline continued, moving on to Elizabeth with an obvious look of distaste, "Who are you?"

"I'm Lizzy, Jane's sister," Elizabeth said with a curt nod. "I live in California and I'm just visiting for the holidays."

"I know Jane works for my brother, but what do you do for a living?" Caroline questioned bluntly, her eyebrows raised in a condescending manner.

Elizabeth, a bit taken aback that someone would ask such a question after such a brief meeting answered, "I'm a secretary and I work at Ad-Genesis."

Caroline's eyes widened. "You work for Will's company?" she asked, her gaze momentarily teeming with jealousy.

"Yeah," Elizabeth replied, a bit unsure of why Caroline's mood had suddenly shifted. She glanced over at Will and found a stony expression that was hard to read.

Caroline pursed her lips and forced a stressed, "Nice meeting you."

Elizabeth took that as a cue to dismiss herself, but as she was walking away, she heard Caroline loudly say, "Jane's style is tolerable, but her sister's taste is mediocre. She looks like an escaped nun from a convent."

For a split moment, Elizabeth wished she had worn the dress Jane had told her to. However, she couldn't help but hear Will's voice respond, "I think Elizabeth is very smart to go with an outfit that's dust-mite proof."

Smiling to herself, Elizabeth made her way to the other side of the room. She looked around the room and noticed that everyone had broken up into little social groups. Not knowing where to belong, she decided to stay out of everything and sat herself down on a chair. Soon enough, someone approached her.

"I don't think we've met," the middle-aged woman said, pulling up a seat.

Elizabeth eyed the woman peculiarly. The woman was rather plump, attired in a tight black dress with buttons that looked like they were going to burst at the seams.

"I'm Catherine Bourgh. Will's aunt," she offered as she sat down.

"And I'm Elizabeth, Jane's sister," Elizabeth replied, trying to give a small smile.

Immediately, the woman tensed and straightened up in her seat. "How nice," Mrs. Bourgh said with a fake cheery voice. "So tell me about your family."

Elizabeth frowned. What was it with people asking her awkward questions that day? Annoyed at how people she barely knew were all rudely questioning her personal life, she responded, "I'd rather not disclose my private life to people I hardly know."

"Ohh, aren't you a cheeky woman?" snapped Mrs. Bourgh.

"With three younger sisters growing up, such boldness is not uncommon," replied Elizabeth, her dislike for Mrs. Bourgh growing by the minute.

"There are five of you?" asked Mrs. Bourgh, seemingly surprised.

"No ma'am, just one of me and four other sisters."

Mrs. Bourgh's face drained of color at Elizabeth's tongue-in-cheek statement.

"Ah—I see you have met the clever Elizabeth Bennet," a third voice joined in. Elizabeth turned around and saw Will standing behind her. "And I see you've met my troubled Aunt," he murmured into her ear.

"Clever?" spat Mrs. Bourgh. "This girl has misplaced her sensibility. The nerve of her to talk back to me like that."

"Sorry if I offended you, Mrs. Bourgh," said Elizabeth, not wanting anything more than to get herself away from the woman before her.

"Too late. You and your entire family offend me. Especially that one." Mrs. Bourgh pointed at Jane who was across the room.

"My sister?" Elizabeth confusedly questioned.

Before Mrs. Bourgh could respond, Will quickly cut in, "That's enough, Aunt Catherine. There really is no need to accuse innocent people."

"Be quiet, Fitzwilliam," Mrs. Bourgh said angrily with a wave of her hand. "It's already a shame you don't stand up for your own cousin."

Elizabeth blinked, her confusion mounting. If she had learned anything recently, it was that Will had one messed up family.

"Hurry and come with me before she loses it," Will urged, pulling Elizabeth up from her seat.

"We will see," Mrs. Bourgh huffed, "who the winner will be from all of this."

Will ignored his aunt and dragged a baffled Elizabeth into the empty kitchen.

"Well your aunt is quite interesting," Elizabeth said, running her fingers along the counter.

"Don't even get me started," said Will with a hopeless shake of his head, "Sorry about my aunt."

"It's okay. My relatives aren't any better," Elizabeth answered, thinking back to the Christmas her Aunt Cindy decided to play matchmaker between her and a nerdy guy named Bill. "But what on earth does she have against Jane?"

Will's face darkened. "If you must know, she's sought out Charles to be her daughter Anne's husband."

"What?" asked Elizabeth with wide eyes, "That is ridiculous. Charlie is with Jane right now."

"Precisely her problem," answered Will. "You know, my aunt's had her eyes on Charlie since we were kids."

"Does Anne even like Charlie?"

Will shrugged. "Who knows?"

At precisely that moment, the kitchen door flung open and Caroline strode into the room.

"Will! I've been looking all over for you," Caroline exclaimed, "Come with me, there is a delicious tart you _must_ sample!"

Will looked like he'd rather be slapped in the face than go with Caroline. However, Caroline quickly walked up to Will and threw a sideways glare at Elizabeth. At this rude gesture, Elizabeth wanted to make herself clear. For all that she cared, Caroline could have Will if she wanted.

"No need to look at me like that, Caroline," said Elizabeth in a feigned sweet voice. "I gladly withdraw from the competition I was never in."

A slight flicker of change from Will's indifferent expression was the last Elizabeth saw of him before Caroline pulled him out of the room.

Moments later, the door banged open again, this time with two children skipping into the kitchen.

"Bet you can't do this," bragged the older boy, tossing a grape high into the air and catching it into his mouth.

"Bet you I can," the younger girl challenged, trying again and again to land a grape into her mouth.

Elizabeth watched the kids, amused with their little game. It was something she and Jane used to do for fun when they were little, catching grapes into their mouths and sticking their hands under the couch trying to find the ones that'd rolled away.

As the girl dropped the grapes repeatedly, Elizabeth couldn't help but say, "If you throw it up in a straighter line and move your face a bit more forward, it'll work."

The girl snapped up and looked at Elizabeth. Incredulously, she asked, "Really?"

"Yeah," Elizabeth answered confidently, "Let me show you."

Elizabeth got a grape from the bowl and held it in her palm. "Now watch carefully," she instructed the kids, pointing at the grape then her mouth.

She eyed the grape; her mind whirling back to many years ago to when she'd last played the game. She tossed the grape up in a straight line, pleased that her skills had not yet left her. Triumphantly, she watched as the grape soared back towards her as it entered her mouth, unexpectedly continuing its way down her throat before conveniently lodging itself halfway through the journey. Elizabeth sputtered and gagged. The grape was stuck.

Instinctively, she coughed and heavily patted her chest, but her attempts were to no avail. After the initial shock left her, panic took its course as she realized that she was choking on a grape. Noticing that something was wrong, the kids grabbed Elizabeth by her hands and yanked her through the door, screaming for help.

It was quite a scene for those in the other room, a wide-eyed woman suddenly bursting through the doors gasping for breath, two kids at her side yelling and crazily flailing their arms around for attention.

For a couple seconds, the crowd of stunned people stared at the scene before them before Caroline suddenly emerged in front of Elizabeth, exclaiming, "She's choking! She's choking!"

Elizabeth nodded frantically as she clutched her throat, heavily concentrated on breathing for air.

"Someone's got to do the Heimlich maneuver. I read this in a medical book before!" Caroline continued to loudly explain, although it was clear that the excitement in her voice overrode her concern.

All of a sudden, Elizabeth felt a strong pair of arms slide around her abdominal area, thrusting upwards. Out of the corner of the eyes, Elizabeth saw that it was Will. The crowd looked on with loud whispers and Caroline Bingley carried on her air of authority.

"Careful Will, you can't heave too high up—it might damage her ribs," she observed, waving her arms up and down as if she was controlling an out of control crowd. "It's all right, everything going to be okay. Worst comes to worst, I am certified to do CPR and I—"

_Plop!_

The grape Elizabeth heaved up in an upward direction had hit Caroline Bingley squarely in her face. As a good number of people laughed and applauded on the turnout of the situation, Caroline's expression was priceless to watch. Her shocked mouth opened and closed several times, distraught eyes blinking hysterically.

After taking a deep breath and recovering herself, Elizabeth said, "Sorry, Caroline. I certainly wasn't aiming at you."

"Humph," Caroline snorted, wiping her face with a napkin. "I've had enough with you," she declared, turning around and deliberately squashing the grape lying by her foot.

As the crowd resumed their previous occupations, Elizabeth's cheeks reddened in color. Will looked at her expectantly.

"Well—it was good that you were here to help me out," she said gratefully, avoiding his gaze.

"Erm…yeah," he replied with a casual shrug. "All in a day's work."

Silence fell between them.

"I guess I'll just uh…clean up this mess on the ground," she slowly said, pointing at the smashed grape.

"Yeah. I'll help you. Charlie hates soiled carpets," Will responded, walking back into the kitchen for paper towels. Elizabeth nodded, awkwardly following behind him.

Closing the cabinet, Will turned around with raised eyebrows.

"What exactly were you doing?"

At his question, Elizabeth turned even redder, and her eyes darted away from him.

"I was…reliving my childhood days," she quickly stammered, tearing off a piece of the paper towel.

"Just had to pick one of the days with near-death experiences, didn't you?" Will asked as his lips quirked at Elizabeth's intentionally vague answer.

Elizabeth threw up her hands. "Okay fine, I was trying to catch a grape in my mouth. Is that so bad?"

Will's eyes lit up. "Ohh, you mean this?" He casually flung a grape high up into the air until it almost touched the ceiling and caught it effortlessly in his mouth.

Elizabeth nodded.

"Minus the dramatic choking and deathly wheezes, of course," he finished with a grin, chewing the grape.

"Hey I can do that too, you know," Elizabeth objected, pursing her lips as she moved towards the counter.

Quick as lightning, Will darted before her and snatched away the bowl of grapes, holding it in a childish posture protectively to his side.

"Don't even think about it."

To his surprise, Elizabeth's frown disappeared and she began to laugh. He watched blankly as she continued to giggle.

"What are you laughing at?" he curiously asked.

"Me and you," she answered with a smile. "We're acting like such kids."

Will briefly smiled back before his expression became somber again. At his sudden change of look, Elizabeth sobered and her senses woke her. What was she doing? He was her boss—not someone she could joke around with like that.

"Yeah well I shouldn't keep the squashed grape waiting," she quickly said, picking up the paper towel. "Thanks again for helping me," she finished, hurrying out the door.

Will watched as Elizabeth walked out the door. As Caroline fussed over him for the rest of the evening, he kept an eye on Elizabeth. He watched as she gradually opened up and interacted with people, making jokes out of the incident earlier that night. He saw how quickly she rebounded from embarrassment and kept her steady ground. Her personality mesmerized him. The more he saw of it, the more he wanted to learn. As the New Year dawned upon them, he couldn't help but wonder what was in store with an employee such as her in his office. Would they put their past behind them and know each other more? Or keep the boundaries and respectable distances between them? Either way, he intended to find out.

* * *

A/N: If you liked this chapter and would like another one to follow soon, please drop a review. Thanks! (:


	14. Bound for Home

"Lizzy, wake up!" Jane chirped in a singsong voice, drawing the blinds open in the bedroom and allowing the warming sunshine to pour into the room.

Elizabeth squinted in the bright light, lifting an arm in an attempt to ward off the piercing glare. "What? Why? What time is it?"

"It's ten o'clock, sleepyhead," Jane answered, pulling the covers off of her sister.

"Argh!" Elizabeth said, pulling the covers back over her head. "Get off me and let me sleep," she protested angrily, her voice muffled by the thick blanket.

"Hurry up and get dressed, we're leaving soon," Jane called out as she turned to leave the room. "You have ten minutes."

"Don't you know better than to molest a sleeping person?" Elizabeth crabbily asked with an irritated voice, glaring at Jane.

"No. Now get up."

With a heavy sigh, Elizabeth threw off the covers and stepped out of bed, running out to catch her sister in the hall.

"Where are we going?" she asked, rubbing her eyes sleepily.

"It's your last day here so we're all going out with Charlie and his friend.

Elizabeth groaned. "Will again? Besides immediate family, I think I see my boss more often than any other employee in the company," she complained.

"And how many employees would kill to be you?" Jane questioned with her hands on her hips.

Elizabeth pretended to think before retorting, "Just the ones who are severely damaged in the head." A disturbing image of Caroline and her fake puppy face drooling suddenly popped into her mind.

She turned around and headed back into the bedroom to change, a bit unhappy about how the day was planned out. She'd been hoping to spend her last day alone with Jane. However, she reminded herself that she'd never seen her sister so happy in a relationship before. Knowing that Jane would do the same for her, Elizabeth looked for a suitable outfit and prepared herself for a long day.

After she was done, Elizabeth walked into the living room and found Jane in the kitchen. She beckoned a finger at Elizabeth and pointed to the counter. When Elizabeth walked over and looked at what Jane was referring to, she gasped.

"What is all this crap?" Elizabeth asked, her mouth wide open as she pointed to the assortment of puke-colored vitamins spread out on the kitchen counter.

Jane hopeless shook her head. "This _crap_, is what will help your baby grow."

Upon hearing the word 'baby', Elizabeth froze. She'd almost forgotten. Besides the dizziness she had felt during her first weeks into pregnancy, she now felt completely normal. The fact that her two-month pregnancy was still not showing in the least bit made it hard for her to believe that a baby was actually growing inside of her. All of it seemed so surreal.

"No, all of this will mutate my baby and give him extra arms and legs."

"Lizzy," Jane pleaded, "Stop joking around and take the vitamins."

Elizabeth made a face. She hated vitamins. She didn't like one bit of how they looked, tasted, and smelled.

"Okay, baby and I both vote for the fruity gummy bear vitamin chews," Elizabeth said rather self-importantly, raising her hand as if she was actually casting a vote.

"No," Jane insisted, "I read in a magazine that these vitamins are beneficial to both mother and baby. I got them just for you. You know, some people say that these help especially with brain development."

Elizabeth blinked. Times such as these made her wonder why Jane couldn't be the mother instead.

"Yay, I get to give birth to a baby Einstein," Elizabeth remarked dryly as she poured a cup of water. "And if people ever say a thing about him getting the hair from his mom, I'll—"

Elizabeth caught the stern look on Jane's face and paused, realizing that her protests would be futile. Reluctantly, she took the vitamins with a big gulp of water, shuddering and wincing at the aftertaste. Jane nodded approvingly.

* * *

At precisely ten-thirty, they arrived at the penthouse and were immediately greeted by an apologetic Charles.

"Jane, I'm so sorry. Something at the company came up and I've just been called in for a meeting," he said with a worried look, "But don't worry. I'm just going to pop my head in there real quick and make sure everything's fine. It should take at most an hour," he added hastily, looking at Jane nervously for her reaction.

Jane shrugged and answered, "No problem. Do you need me to go with you?"

Charles hesitated, looking from Jane to Elizabeth. "Yes—I mean, if that's all right with Lizzy."

Elizabeth paused before answering. The last thing she wanted to do was be stuck with Will alone. But then again, she couldn't refuse the hopeful look on Charles and Jane's faces.

"Yeah. It's fine," she replied as casually as she could with a shrug.

Charles smiled gratefully at Elizabeth before turning around to call loudly into the room, "Lizzy's here. Jane and I are heading to the office for a short while. Take care of her," Charles added.

Elizabeth waved goodbye to Jane and Charles before going into the house and closing the door behind her. When she went in, Will was not in sight. A bit uncomfortable, she sat herself down on a chair and look idly around the room. Absentmindedly, she began to hum a tune. However, the melodic line was soon interrupted by a frustrated yelp coming from another room.

Immediately, Elizabeth frowned and instinctively called, "Are you okay?"

Elizabeth's ears perked for a response, but found no reply to her question. Wondering if something bad had happened, she stood up and began to follow the noise. Taking a twist in the hallway, she approached a lighted room. A bit unhappy that her concern went unanswered, she strode up to the room and looked in. The scene she found before her was something she'd never expected to see.

Will was trying to do the laundry. He stood by the washing machine, his hand stroking his chin ponderously and his forehead wrinkled in a heavily concentrated manner. His eyes stared confusedly at the knobs while his finger traced the buttons back and forth. Give him a pipe and a trench coat, and he'd look like a confused detective trying to solve a case.

"How's it going, Sherlock?" Elizabeth ventured, amused at the sight before her.

Will's head snapped up and his eyes widened. It was obvious that he was surprised to see Elizabeth. "I didn't know you were here," he muttered.

"Didn't you hear Charles? He told you I was here before heading down to the office with Jane."

"Oh," Will mumbled. "I didn't hear that."

After a long pause, Elizabeth decided to break the silence and asked, "What are you doing?"

Will shrugged and stated the obvious. "The laundry."

"And I see you've made some amazing progress," she observed with a smirk, eyeing the pile of clothes still lying in the hamper.

"Well," Will began, turning slightly red, "All washing machines are different so I was just trying to figure them out. Charlie sure has some…fancy machines."

Elizabeth took a quick glimpse at the machines and worked to contain her laughter. The machines were just like the ones she had at home.

"You know, it's confusing with all these buttons and stuff," Will continued on importantly, completely unaware of Elizabeth being on the verge of laughter. "Wash preferences, temperature settings, time durations—who needs to choose all that to wash a pile of clothes? You know, they should just have one button for start and stop," he exclaimed, animatedly waving his hands over the row of buttons.

Afraid that she was going to burst out laughing, Elizabeth merely nodded. It was clear that Will had never done laundry before. Being the rich man that he was, it was likely that the maids did everything for him. And now, he was acting like he knew how, obliviously finding fault in Charles's perfectly normal machines. Enjoying the amusement, Elizabeth decided not to say anything. She wanted to see how he would get himself out of this.

"Whatever, I'll just dump these in and hope they wash all right," Will said, with a careless shrug, "If not, I'll blame Charles," he added confidently and began putting his clothes in.

"_Yeah, go right ahead and blame Charlie for your rainbow colored underwear, genius,_" Elizabeth thought to herself with a grin.

Will stopped dead in his actions. "Why are you looking at me like that?" he asked with a baffled frown, "Are you laughing at me?"

Elizabeth blinked, immediately replacing her smirk with an innocent look. "No, not at all. I was just going to ask you if you were going to separate those," she replied as she observed Will's actions.

"Separate what?" Will asked, clearly confused. A few seconds later however, his eyes lit up and he responded brightly, "Oh, you mean separate the shirts from the pants, right?"

It took every effort to stop her shoulders from shaking with laughter.

"Wrong."

Will threw his hands up in the air and sighed. "All right," he said in a defeated voice, his face turning bright red. "I admit it. I've never done the laundry before."

"Doesn't take a genius to figure that out," Elizabeth said, targeting Will's failed attempt to appear skillful at something he didn't how to do. "But it's about time that you learned."

Will nodded, and Elizabeth began giving him instructions on how his clothes should be washed. After she finished talking Will through the process, Elizabeth announced, "Okay, you got it all down. I'll be in the living room."

Immediately, Will opened his mouth to object. "But what if I forget to do something, put in too much detergent, or mix up the colors? I don't want to end up with purple underpants, you know."

"And I would much rather not see the entire contents of your wardrobe," Elizabeth answered as she shuddered at the awkward thought of actually having to watch Will wash his underpants. "So if you'll excuse me, Mr. Darcy, I'll be on my way."

She turned around and made her way to the living room, picking up a magazine on the coffee table to read. Inside the laundry room Will felt stupid enough to whack himself on the head. He made a mental note to impose his intelligence on Elizabeth the next time opportunity called.

Being a manager had instilled into his character the necessity of always appearing competent. Will thought it as a valuable way of establishing authority over his employees and gaining respect from them. This time, however, his attempt to feign proficiency ended up as a disaster.

After Elizabeth left, Will realized that she had known from the beginning that he didn't know a thing about laundry. She watched silently as he played a fool of himself and chose not to say a thing. Now, he wondered if other employees had viewed him in the same way and never bothered to confront him of his foolishness. He now realized the possibility of appearing like a complete idiot behind his act of playing expert. But then again, could he bring himself to remove his pride and show weakness and vulnerability to those he was supposed to have control over?

Fitzwilliam Darcy did not know.

* * *

The four walked along the streets of the outdoor mall, two engrossed in conversation and two deadly silent.

What happened earlier that day had gotten Elizabeth thinking and added to her perception of Will's character. Though she knew that he was not as cold-hearted as she once thought, it was clear that he was still every bit as prideful as she first found him. Although she was beginning to find him less of a jerk, his pride continued to stand in the way and was something that vehemently refused to budge.

It bothered Elizabeth to see Will so reluctant on showing his flaws that he played his game until he had no other move but submit to her checkmate. She didn't know why he fought so hard to impress those around him, but she knew that it was hard to respect people like that. To her, incapability was no big deal—it was something she learned from and eventually put behind despite initial embarrassment. To her, genuine respect for another came from one's acknowledgement of imperfection and a willingness to turn faults into qualities.

Her thoughts were soon disrupted as an oddly dressed man appeared from behind the flaps of a colorful tent and began talking animatedly to her.

"My, my, my, what a beautiful young lady we have here," the man said in a raspy voice. "And certainly this lovely lady would like to know about her future?"

Elizabeth stared blankly at him, speechless at the scrawny little man before her. He wore round glasses, a neon green and pink robe, and had a long white beard. If anything, he looked like a hippie Albus Dumbledore. To her right, she saw Will roll his eyes at the man. Charles and Jane, however, looked like they were slightly intrigued by the man's sudden appearance.

"I think I'll live happier not knowing the date of my death, thanks," Elizabeth replied, trying to get away from the man.

"No wait—not so fast," the man continued, drawing closer to Elizabeth. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "I sense your aura. You are _destined _for great success," he declared, his hands melodramatically making circular motions in the air.

Glancing awkwardly at the creepy old man, Elizabeth said in a most unenthusiastic manner, "Yippee."

Charles approached the man, looked at him amusedly and asked, "So you're a fortuneteller?"

The man nodded many times, his big bright eyes gleaming back at Charles.

"Well Lizzy," Charles shrugged, "Can't hurt to have a go." It was clear that Charles was very entertained by the strange man.

Elizabeth pursed her lips. Fortunetellers were nothing new. Her mother had always been rather fond of fortunetellers, anxiously dragging each of her daughters in for palm readings, hoping that their futures would be well connected with handsome young men. The last time Elizabeth had her fortune read, it was foretold that her marriage would be a blissful one. Obviously, that was not the case.

"I insist," said the man, welcomingly pointing to his tent. "This reading will be free of charge."

Jane threw Elizabeth a go-for-it look, so she shrugged and agreed. The lot followed the man into the tent, and each was immediately overwhelmed with the smell of heavy incense.

"Come, come, please sit down," he instructed. As Elizabeth took her seat, the fortuneteller pointed at Will and said, "You, have a seat right next to her."

Elizabeth turned to look at Will and saw that a disgusted expression hung on his face. He didn't seem to be the least concerned for anyone's future.

"Ah, look like that now young man, but you will soon be curious, for you have a part in the telling as well," the fortuneteller said in a rough voice, his wrinkled hands crossed on the table.

Will looked at the man in defiance. He'd never been fond of fortunetellers and was therefore quite the skeptic.

"There is a future," he began mystically, "in which your destinies will be intertwined."

Narrowing her eyes, Elizabeth snorted. "Us?" she questioned, pointing from Will to herself.

"Yes, yes," the man nodded heavily, his tiny head bobbing up and down as if it was on some sort of a spring. "The two of you will share a future together."

Elizabeth guffawed. "That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard."

"Call it whatever you wish, but you shall have a son together as well," he continued on, lifting a serious finger into the air as he pointed at Elizabeth. "You will have a son and his name will be…"

Elizabeth lifted her eyebrows and waited for the end to the dramatic pause.

"Normandic."

Behind her, she heard Charles crack up. "Now is that spelled with a 'k' at the end?" he asked Jane with a snigger. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw Jane nudge Charles in the ribs and whispered, "Charlie, don't be rude."

Wide-eyed, Elizabeth sputtered, "Normandic?"

The fortuneteller responded with a wide grin, showing his crooked yellow teeth.

"Why would I ever name my son Normandic? Do you have any idea how important names are to personalities? Anyone named Normandic sounds like a—"

"Totally arrogant and conceited dick," Charles interrupted. "Just like the father, eh?" he asked jokingly, playfully patting Will on his back.

Will shot Charles a vengeful look.

Not a second later, Elizabeth turned to Will with narrowed eyes and scathingly asked, "Was this your aunt's idea?"

Will, who had been mostly inanimate up to this point, immediately pounced on the accusation. "Are you kidding me? No one's idea would ever sway me into naming a kid Normandic," he defended.

Elizabeth glanced at Will, her expression unconvinced.

"And you will live a long and healthy life," the fortuneteller prophetically finished with a happy clap of his hands, completely ignoring Elizabeth and Will's remarks.

Elizabeth forced a smile. "Thank you. Good to know that I won't drop dead by tomorrow morning," she said, wanting very badly to leave. "If you ever look into predicting the future of stock markets, do give me a call," she added with a hint of impatience in her voice as she stood up to take her leave. When they finally squeezed themselves out of the tent, Charles burst into laughter.

"Normandic Darcy," Charles exclaimed with bright smile, nodding at Will. "I can see it in headlines already," he continued as he began to imitate the voice of an anchorman, "The infamous Fitzwilliam continues the tradition of weird and outlandish names down his family tree."

Jane and Elizabeth responded with good-natured chuckles while Will continued to walk onwards without much reaction.

Catching up to Will, Elizabeth said with pursed lips, "Just for your information, if we ever uh—," she stopped with an awkward pause before deciding to start a completely new sentence, "I will never, never, ever in my right mind agree to—"

"Yeah me neither," Will cut in before adding, "I hate that name."

The rest of the day passed rather uneventfully aside from the short incident during lunch in which Elizabeth nearly got a heart attack when Will ordered a two hundred dollar burger. The next day, Elizabeth left New York behind and boarded the plane back home. Her trip to New York was short but most definitely memorable. Although she regretted on not having spent enough time with her sister alone, Elizabeth found that everything evened out in the end. She found Charles to be very amiable, and even Will himself seemed to posses a little bit of humanity underneath his stoic disposition.

However, as sad as she was to leave her sister, Elizabeth couldn't wait to get back to work and daily routines. She was beginning to miss her home and the single life she was just beginning to lead. She loved the independence of it all and felt like nothing would ever be able to tie her down. She was free to do everything as she pleased, with no limit to her capabilities. Immersed in her own thoughts, Elizabeth didn't even notice Will aboard the same plane as her, flying in business class back towards his own life and ambitions.

* * *

a/n: I am now in college and the first full week starts tomorrow! I should be excited, but the pile of work awaiting me is kind of intimidating. Anyways, I will try to update on time, but because I'm on a quarter system, I'll have courses that move along faster and more midterms and exams. College life is definitely another thing to get used to although I'm already having a blast with the people in my dorm. Fun Fun.

And of course, a review from you would really make my day. Oh and one more thing, many thanks to my beta, without whom you will all have had to suffer from a very abrupt end to the chapter.


	15. Back to Life

a/n: So I haven't entirely disappeared. Nevertheless, I am very, very sorry that this update has taken so long. So long that I've finished and entire quarter of college. Unbelievable. I really hope that this won't interfere too much with the flow of the story. I was actually very close to putting the story on a temporary hiatus, but then the holidays rolled around and I changed my mind. I wrote this chapter a day after school got out. This chapter has not been betaed yet, so my apologies for any errors.

For those of you who have forgotten a bit about the story, I'll try to give you a quick summary of the last chapter or two. Elizabeth and Will both went to New York. Elizabeth to visit Jane; Will to visit Charles. Elizabeth and Will meet in New York through Jane dating Charles and figure out how exactly how small a world they all live in. After the trip to Ellis Island, their misunderstanding between George has been solved, and Elizabeth no longer hates Will, though she remains cautious in his company. Now, Elizabeth and Will have returned, and their relationship begins to change as Elizabeth and Will are on good terms. In the meanwhile, Elizabeth is pregnant and is trying to figure out exactly what she wants to do with the baby. Read on to find out.

As always, special thanks to faithful readers who have been following this story though I am doing an awful job at updating.

* * *

Elizabeth sat down on the couch, adjusting the pillow behind her back. After getting into a comfortable position, she let out a content sigh. The flight back had been a long one, with a baby behind her crying and screaming all the way back while his mother loudly squalled a never-ending rendition of _The Itsy Bitsy Spider_ in a futile attempt to silence the infant. Elizabeth put a hand over her stomach. Perhaps that she would be that woman in the near future. Or perhaps not. She had yet to fully decide the baby's future. But now that she was back with the weight of the world on her shoulders, it was time to make a decision.

If she opted for adoption, Elizabeth wanted to make sure that the baby went to a good family. She wanted her baby to be loved, and she needed to find a family she could completely trust. But even if she found a suitable family, Elizabeth would still have her worries. Was she going to be part of the child's life? Was she even allowed to do that? Did adoption mean letting go completely without a single idea of how her baby was faring? What if she never got to see the baby again until curiosity brought it back to find its birth mother? Elizabeth shook her head and sighed. Maybe she should start looking into the adoption thing soon.

The telephone rang and Elizabeth lazily grunted before reaching over to pick it up.

"Hello?"

"_Ms. Bennet? This is the court deputy calling to inform you that your next meeting in court will be postponed until February 23__rd__." _

Elizabeth blinked. She was supposed to be in court tomorrow.

Frowning, she asked, "Did something happen?"

"_Mr. Wickham is currently resolving issues with his lawyer. He called in this morning and filed for a change of lawyers. Your case will resume as soon as Mr. Wickham finds a replacement lawyer and finishes the required paperwork."_

Elizabeth's eyes widened. Did George get in a fight with Will? Stunned by the news, she quickly bid the deputy goodbye and hung up. She thought about calling George and asking him what had happened, but decided against it. Surely something would be settled between George and Will. Elizabeth shrugged. Will being out of the picture was to her advantage--she wouldn't be missing him in court.

* * *

The next day at work, Lizzie was engulfed by a wave of hugs from Charlotte, Sean, and Gia as soon as she walked through the door.

"Lizzy!" Gia exclaimed, giving Lizzy an overly tight squeeze. "You're finally back. I missed you!"

Elizabeth gasped. Charlotte's embrace was suffocating.

"I missed you too," Elizabeth laughed, happy to be back around people she cared about. She had missed the close-knit relationship the four of them shared. It was good to be back with friends again.

"You have to tell us all about New York," Charlotte insisted, "I've never been there, you know."

Elizabeth nodded in agreement. "But first, you must tell me what you've been up to for Christmas vacation."

Charlotte blushed. Elizabeth caught on to her friend's reaction and immediately smirked.

"You've been with a guy, haven't you?"

When Charlotte didn't answer, Elizabeth broke into a grin.

"Who is it?" she asked, her face flushing with excitement as she enthusiastically nudged Charlotte in the ribs.

Charlotte rolled her eyes. "Honestly Lizzy, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you have the memory span of a gold fish."

Elizabeth frowned and was surprised when Charlotte chuckled.

"Who else would I be with, genius? Phillip Collins, of course."

Elizabeth's eyes widened as a memory that seemed distant came floating back to her. How could she forget all about Collins? Of course Charlotte was still with him, much to her disappointment

"That's right," Elizabeth said, drained of enthusiasm.

"Come on, Elizabeth. I really don't get why you dislike him so much. You should get to know him away from court. He's different from other guys--in a good way," Charlotte suggested with a shrug.

Seeing as nothing she said was ever going to change Charlotte's opinion of Collins, Elizabeth decided to change the subject.

"So what have you guys been up to?" she asked Gia and Sean.

"Nothing much, really. I think we should have just gone to New York with you," Sean said, eyeing Elizabeth in a peculiar way. There was a distinguishable softness to his voice. "We missed you a lot," he added, his face turning into a light shade of pink.

Sean looked away for a split moment, as if he was embarrassed with his own behavior. He quickly recomposed himself and looked at Elizabeth.

"So how was it?"

Elizabeth made a face. "The parts with Jane were great--I'd been dying to spend time with her. But, she has this boyfriend who she's always with. He's actually her boss."

Gia looked at Elizabeth sympathetically.

"Don't get me wrong," Elizabeth quickly explained, "I'm perfectly okay with her spending time with Charles, but--"

"Charles!" Gia exclaimed, cutting in. "Charles Bingley?"

Elizabeth nodded. Before she could ask how Gia knew him, Gia spoke excitedly, "I grew up with Charles. He's Will's best friend."

Charlotte gasped and shot Elizabeth a flabbergasted look.

Elizabeth sighed. "That is precisely the problem. Will was with Charles wherever he went, and I was with Jane wherever she went. I spent most of the time trailing awkwardly after Charles and my sister, with Will by my side," Elizabeth said, wrinkling her nose.

Gia shook her head. "I would have warned you ahead of time if I'd known the world was this small. Of all people, you sister just had to date your worst enemy's best friend."

Elizabeth laughed. "Your brother's not my worst enemy anymore. He's not exactly my friend, but he explained his reasons to me about why he had to work with George. We're trying to be nice to each other now. I figured that it would be the best for both of us. We can't have cat fights at work, you know," Elizabeth replied.

Gia nodded, not at all surprised that Will had taken the chance to settle things with Elizabeth. It was like her brother's nature to do so. "So did you meet anyone else? Did your sister take you to that annual party thing at Charles's place?"

Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "Don't even get me started."

Sean chuckled. "Let me guess. You've met Caroline the wicked witch."

"The wicked witch happened to be in the form of an ugly yeti that night," Elizabeth answered.

"And that's another point for Caroline and her horrendous fashion sense. It's a wonder how she holds a career in fashion," Sean said. His voice dropped to a low whisper. "Although perhaps she's resorted to other means," he hinted darkly with a smirk.

"That is very unlikely," Elizabeth answered. "She's too busy drooling over Will to notice any other male figures on this planet."

"The usual," Gia said, "She's been like that with Will for as along as I remembered."

"Oh," Elizabeth remarked. "I also met your estranged Aunt."

Sean's cheery face immediately drooped.

"Ah, relatives," he sighed. "They neither have the slightest idea how to behave properly nor do they possess the tiniest inkling of when to simply drop dead."

"Sean!" Gia scolded, slapping her cousin's arm in disapproval.

"Now what would we do without them?" Sean questioned sarcastically, completely ignoring Gia.

Elizabeth shook her head. "You think your Aunt is ridiculous? Next Christmas, you're coming with me to visit my family."

"Deal," Sean answered.

Their conversation was interrupted as the doors to the company flung wide opened. The four of them turned their heads to see Will Darcy walking through the doors, dressed in a Tuxedo and holding a suitcase.

Sean whistled. "Look who's here to dress and impress."

Will ignored him.

Gia ran up to her brother. Her eagerness led Elizabeth to guess that she had not seen him since before Christmas vacation.

"Will!" Gia happily threw her arms around her brother.

Will's straight face soon melted into delight as he embraced his sister. There was a kind of tenderness Elizabeth had never seen in him before. She could tell from their interaction that they were just as close as she was with Jane.

Finally, Will released his sister and kissed her lightly on her forehead. With a smile, he asked after her and how her vacation had been. As much as Elizabeth tried to look away, the unfamiliar side to Will's character mesmerized her and drew her in. She could have sworn that he was an entirely different person.

Awkwardly, Elizabeth clumsily stepped behind the receptionist desk and pretended to occupy herself as Will reunited himself with Gia. Charlotte, who had been by her side until now, also slipped quietly away. Neither of them wanted to interrupt the intimate moment.

"Elizabeth."

As soon as the all too familiar voice reached her ears, Elizabeth's head immediately snapped up. Her eyes met Will's, and it took her a moment to realize that Will was greeting her.

"Good morning, Mr. Darcy," she answered politely, giving him a nod of acknowledgement.

Almost immediately, Will's expression stiffened. He looked almost offended.

"You know you can call me Will," he muttered.

Elizabeth narrowed her eyes. Why was the sudden invitation of friendliness coming from him? Besides, she couldn't call her boss by his first name. That would be informal and just plain odd. Come to think, she didn't recall ever calling him by his first name before.

"Wouldn't it be considered improper if I called you anything less formal?" Elizabeth questioned, feigning innocence.

Will didn't answer. Seeing his inanimate response, Elizabeth turned and asked, "Sean, how exactly do people around here address their boss?"

"They call him Mr. Darcy," he answered before pausing to smirk darkly, "although I daresay that there are a good number who would be more than happy to call him Willy."

Elizabeth fought back a snort and caught Will's eye. His face momentarily contorted into disgust at the thought of being called 'Willy'.

Breaking the silence, Will spoke. "You call Sean by his first name," he argued, pointing at his cousin with a hint of impatience in his voice. "And technically speaking, he is your superior."

Elizabeth blinked confusedly. She didn't understand why it bugged him so much that she didn't call him by his first name. Was it the sense of formality that bothered him so much? Perhaps he really did mean it when they agreed to start anew as friends, leveling their status with each other's. But no, she thought. She wasn't about to change the balance of order. Although they had gotten closer from her trip in New York, she wasn't about to drop all of her defenses so quickly. She still had herself to protect.

"You don't like being called Mr. Darcy?" Elizabeth asked, unable to stop her curiosity.

"Not if I'm going to have to hear it a fifty times a day from the same person," Will replied casually. "It makes me feel old," he added with a slight grimace.

Elizabeth frowned. She certainly wouldn't be the addressing him more than a few times a day--or so she hoped. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Will shrugged. "It means that during the next three months that you will be working specifically with me, do refrain from calling me Mr. Darcy."

Elizabeth's eyes widened. Did she hear him right? What exactly did he mean by working specifically with him? Before her mind could coherently put together a question, Sean spoke.

"Will and I talked over the phone," Sean explained. "I'm going to be in London helping to develop a project."

"You're going to be gone?" Her question came out louder than she had meant it to.

Carefully studying her expression, Sean replied, "Yeah. Will decided that I was best suited to go and solve some complications."

"And that makes me nobody's secretary," Elizabeth slowly reasoned, reality dawning on her. "Or not," she whispered quietly as realization hit her.

"Glad we solved our differences earlier, because you will be my secretary while Sean's gone," Will said, sounding a bit more excited than he should be.

Elizabeth pursed her lips. "Don't you already have one?"

Will pretended to think for a moment before straightforwardly answering, "Nope."

"So what makes you need one all of a sudden?" Elizabeth shot back, not caring in the least that Gia and Sean were staring at her for questioning Will so thoroughly.

"Don't get mad at me," Will said, hands up in a surrendering motion. "I'm just using my resources."

Anger shot through Elizabeth until she realized that he was simply teasing her.

"Glad to know that we've moved on from being enemies to being engaged in a symbiotic relationship now, _Mr. Darcy_," she retorted, carefully emphasizing the syllables to his name.

"Great to know," he replied casually, "I'll see you in two days, Elizabeth." He excused himself and gently brushed by Elizabeth's shoulders as he walked away.

It took Elizabeth several moments to recover from the strange surge of feeling in her stomach.

"Lizzie, you okay?" Sean asked, a troubled look hidden under an amused face.

"Yeah," Elizabeth breathed.

"Good, because you just turned bright red," Sean continued, eyeing where Will had just walked.

Elizabeth felt her face burn. Something must be wrong with her that day. Shaking out her thoughts, she quickly changed the topic.

"So who wants to go parent-shopping with me after work today?" she asked, eyeing Gia and Sean.

Gia frowned. "What is that supposed to mean?"

Elizabeth patted her belly. "You guys haven't forgotten about this little bugger, have you?"

"Oh right, the little fat-inducer," Sean joined in heartily after his momentary disturbance.

Elizabeth gasped. "You did not just call me fat."

Sean chuckled. "Of course not. If I called you fat now, you'd be morbidly obese in a matter of months."

"Thanks," Elizabeth grumbled.

"So you've decided to put the baby up for adoption," Gia said, looking at Elizabeth.

Elizabeth nodded. "I wasn't entirely sure before. But I thought things through this morning, and I don't think it'll hurt to try hunting for a decent family. Seems as though it's my only option, anyways."

"No it's not," Sean said, "You can always just dump it in front of someone's doorstep."

"Yeah, I'll do that after I birth it in a bathroom stall at Denny's," Elizabeth dryly replied.

Sean and Gia laughed.

"Seriously, you guys," Elizabeth started, "I really want this baby to go to a good home."

Sean's face immediately turned serious. "Of course we'll help you. Poor kid can't grow up in some psychopath's house."

"Right. So today after work, then," Elizabeth said.

"Today after work," Gia agreed, sitting down at her desk and putting herself before a large stack of paperwork.

Elizabeth sat down at her desk. She would get things taken care of one at a time. Right now, her baby's fate needed to be taken care of. She had plenty of time to do some research. She was sure that Sean and Gia would help make the process twice as easy. She sighed in relief, remembering that the court case had been put off for a couple of weeks, making a mental note to ask Will what exactly had happened when she saw him in two days. Rubbing her forehead wearily, Elizabeth opened up the first folder and set to sorting out the paperwork.

* * *

a/n: Thanks for reading! I hope the next chapter will be up in a week or two...I'll try to make it up to you guys. As always, reviews are appreciated!


	16. Closer

"What about this one?" Sean asked, pointing to a fairly small picture and handing the adoption handbook of prospective parents over to Elizabeth.

Elizabeth eagerly took the book, her eyes pouring over the page as they narrowed to scrutinize the picture Sean was talking about.

"See, Mom and Dad are pretty people," Sean explained, bobbing his head approvingly while tapping the picture animatedly.

Elizabeth moved on to read the caption beneath the picture. "Yeah, the Dad and Mom also already have five other kids. Says here that they would like to adopt to so that they can experience what it means to truly love," she read, frowning.

"What is that supposed to mean?" she angrily demanded, "That they don't know how to love a child who's not biologically their own but would like to? Really, Sean, that's twisted."

"Fine," Sean said in mock offense. "Look here. This one should do it."

It didn't take long for Elizabeth to groan.

"A couple adopting because they don't want to live lonely lives when they get old?"

Sean appeared to be surprised.

"Don't you know what that means?" Elizabeth argued, watching hopelessly as Sean shrugged. "My kid's going to be the one looking after old senile people and paying all their bills, essentially tied to them until they die. I mean, that's not a bad thing, looking after our parents and whatnot—but really? If that's their only motive for adopting, I honestly don't—"

"Calm yourself, Elizabeth," Sean said, smiling crookedly, eyes clearly amused with Elizabeth's reaction. "You could have just said no."

"How can I be calm when the person who's supposed to find the right parents for my kid has only the knack of finding a bunch of nutcases?"

Sean laughed. "These people aren't insane. In fact, I bet that you might even like them if you met them in person. Stop thinking so much. It doesn't kill to set up an appointment, you know."

Elizabeth crossed her arms. "I'm not wasting my time with these ridiculous people."

"Stubborn, stubborn Lizzy," Sean teased, shaking his head in mock disapproval. "If this continues, you really will have no choice but dump the little bundle of joy in front of a doorstep."

Elizabeth glared at him.

"Worked for Harry Potter," Sean said, shrugging as if what he'd just said made perfect sense.

"No relative of mine is ever going to raise my baby."

Elizabeth's face immediately contorted in disgust at the thought of having either Lydia or Kitty raising her child. A disturbing image of her possibly male-gendered son decked out in laces and multiple shades of pink popped into her mind. Another image of her child sitting helplessly before a table in front of a row of never-ending vitamins immediately made her rule out Jane as an option. She winced—there was no way she'd let any sister of hers raise the baby.

Diverting her attention, Elizabeth glanced at Gia who was still immersed in the book's pages, head bowed and eyes distant in a contemplating manner.

"Did you find anyone?" Elizabeth asked carefully, unsure of why Gia was looking like that.

"Not yet," Gia said, her voice sounding faraway and distant.

Elizabeth exchanged quick glances with Sean. Sean gave her a look that told her not to worry.

"You know," Gia began softly, her voice barely audible. "This is a good idea I haven't really thought about before."

Elizabeth frowned, not quite sure at what Gia was getting at. She waited until Gia decided to break the silence again.

"I should talk to Keith about this," she concluded, flipping through the book's pages. "This would certainly be easier."

Anxious and curious, Elizabeth chanced to ask Gia what exactly she was talking about, choosing her words with careful discretion.

"Sorry, Gia, but I don't really understand--"

"Oh," Gia cut in with a gasp as her light blue eyes shined brightly in comprehension.

"I've never told you."

Elizabeth waited patiently for Gia to speak again.

"Even though Keith and I have not been married for very long, we've always wanted to have kids earlier on in our marriage. But I've known since I was fifteen that I would be sterile the rest of my life," Gia said, her eyes still focused on something faraway.

"You…can't have any children?" Elizabeth breathed, reaching for Gia's hand.

Gia shook her head. "I got very sick when I was a kid, you see. And the treatment that saved my life left me unable to bear children."

Elizabeth squeezed Gia's hand sympathetically and softly whispered. "I am so sorry to hear about that."

"I've gotten over that, I suppose. Although I've always to have my _own_ children, I don't think the alternatives are half so bad. I've considered so many different alternative medical techniques, but I'd never really thought about adoption until now."

Elizabeth nodded, understanding in her eyes. "You know, it's people like you and Keith out there that give people like me the courage to go on. Without you guys, so many lives would not have been given the chance to live."

Gia smiled weakly and looked like she had something in mind that she wanted to say. Elizabeth looked at her expectantly.

"I'm sorry that none of us has found someone suitable for your baby yet. I know how much you want the baby to go to a good home," Gia paused, her eyes averting to the ground once more, "I've thought about adopting your baby, you know." Gia's voice dropped to a tiny whisper.

Elizabeth's eyes widened. She couldn't think of a better person for the baby to go to.

"But I don't think I could," Gia continued, her whisper so soft that Elizabeth had to lean closer to make out what Gia had said. "I know it's silly and childish of me to be so stuck in the past, but George…"

It only took that much for Elizabeth to understand. After what George had to her, how could she even think about raising George's child? Elizabeth shook her head. That was out of the question. What if the child turned out to be the spitting image of his father? Everyday, Gia would have to see a replica of the man who she most despised. Elizabeth sighed. She would never let Gia live through that.

"Oh Gia," Elizabeth said hurriedly, "I will _never_ ask that of you. I can help you find another baby to adopt, but don't burden yourself with your past. Not especially since it still hurts."

Gia slowly nodded, her eyes gently gazing at Elizabeth. "Now you know my story," she said with a small smile, her cheeks giving off a soft crimson glow.

"And I suppose now that it's my turn to tell everyone about my epic journey in life as well," Sean said, obviously trying to lighten the heavy mood. "Too bad my life's so boring that I have nothing to tell. Unless of course, you want to hear about that one time when this one girl—"

"Yeah okay, Sean," Gia cut in, stopping her cousin short. "That one can wait."

Elizabeth chuckled. "Seeing as though we've gone through these handbooks a million times now, I say that we call it a day."

"Yeah, that would be nice. It's getting late," said Sean as he hungrily rubbed his stomach. "Anyone up for pizza?"

"Yes," Elizabeth and Gia both answered eagerly at the same time.

"Great, I'll meet you guys there, then," Sean said and waved as he left.

"I'll call Keith and tell him to join us," Gia said as she and Elizabeth walked towards the door.

Elizabeth waved to Gia as they parted. "See you in a few," she called as she made her way to her car.

She was glad that Gia had entrusted her with such a private and personal history, and was touched that Gia had even thought about adopting her baby to ease her concerns. She was sure that no other parents would love her baby more than Gia and her husband would. But she would never ask Gia to do such a thing for her. There was no need to remind Gia of a past she so desperately needed to forget.

* * *

Two days later, Elizabeth found herself face to face with Will Darcy as soon as she stepped foot through the company's doors.

"Good morning, Elizabeth," he cheerfully greeted as he beamed down at her. "Time to get to work."

Elizabeth stared at him, wondering if her boss had fallen on his head earlier that morning. It wasn't like him to be so happy and perky without reason. Will, however, ignored her dumbfounded reaction.

"I hope you day is going well so far, and if you'll please follow me, I will show you to your new work space," he finished, flashing a brilliant grin at Elizabeth.

Completely dazed, Elizabeth mechanically trailed after Will, a bit concerned of Will's previously nonexistent enthusiasm. She deeply wondered what could be the cause of his splendid mood. Perhaps the company's stock had skyrocketed to its all time high this morning.

Will led Elizabeth into an unfamiliar room that was unusually large. There was a big work desk to the far side of the room, a coffee-colored couch on the other, and a large plasma TV on the wall next to a tall bookshelf. In one glance, Elizabeth realized that she was in Will's office.

"Why am I working in your office?" she demanded, eyes flitting over to Will's face, questioning him.

Will frowned. "How did you know that I worked here?"

He sounded a bit disappointed and looked like he was just about ready to introduce Elizabeth to office when she guessed its location before he even had the chance to say anything.

Elizabeth snorted and pointed to a large picture of Gia sitting next to his computer.

"And that big fat plaque on the table with your name on it might have helped a little," she added.

Will smiled to himself. "Okay, well do you see that other room connected to mine? That's where you'll be working," he said, pointing to a glass door connected to a separate room at the far-end of the office.

Elizabeth nodded in relief. She wasn't going to be directly sharing an office space with him after all. She walked into the room with Will following behind and found herself looking at a simple room with a desk and a computer. The room, though much smaller than Will's, looked big and empty. She was going to miss working with Gia.

Will caught Elizabeth's saddened expression on her face. "Do you not like the room?" he asked, voice alarmed.

"No, it's a good room," Elizabeth answered quickly, a little embarrassed that her disappointment had been so obvious. "It's just a little bit…" she shrugged before finishing, "lonely looking," she finished awkwardly.

Will's expression softened and he looked guilty. "Sorry about that. I didn't really think of decorations or anything."

Elizabeth narrowed her eyes. Why was Will blaming the emptiness of the room on himself? Since when did he ever blame anything on himself? Something was definitely wrong with Will.

"I'll call up someone to get this room decorated. It'll be your office for the next three months, and I want you to feel comfortable in it," Will went on, immediately reaching for his cell phone.

Elizabeth raised a hand to stop him. "Please, Mr. Darcy. That won't be necessary at all. This room suits me perfectly well and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it," she insisted.

Will looked unsure as he studied Elizabeth's expression carefully. "You know you can have anything you need."

Elizabeth blinked. "Why are you being so nice to me?" she decided to ask straightforwardly, tired of guessing his motives. She wanted to know and hear the truth.

A flinch across Will's face told Elizabeth that he was taken aback. "I thought we agreed to be friends," he stuttered, a confused frown wrinkling his smooth forehead.

"We did, but now you're just being unreasonably friendly. You're still my boss, you know. What do you think other employees will think if they saw you treating me like this?"

Will's eyes flickered and his face fell. He looked a little hurt. "What exactly do you think of me? Is your opinion of me so low that you can't even imagine me trying to make an employee feel comfortable in her own surroundings?"

Elizabeth's eyes dropped to the ground. "Tell you the truth, I _don't_ know what to think of you," she said quietly, averting her gaze.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Will said, his face twisted in an expression Elizabeth did not recognize. After a pause, he asked, "May I ask why?"

She'd never seen him like this before. Frowning, she spoke slow and clear.

"From the day I first met you, you easily became someone who I intensely disliked. From every comment you made to George either about me or regarding the case—none of it felt good to hear. But then you explained everything to me, all of your reasons for getting caught up with this entire affair, and I couldn't punish you for wanting to protect your sister. I would have done the same thing. After that, I wasn't sure if you expected me to just forget everything and speak at you like nothing ever happened. And now, something's gone wrong between you and George so that you are no longer his lawyer. Honestly, Mr. Darcy, I'd be a mad woman to know what to think."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

Will looked weary, and he rubbed his forehead tiredly. But the eyes that focused on Elizabeth were true and sincere.

"I don't know how many apologies I owe you and I don't think any amount I give will ever be enough. I would never expect you to forget everything that's happened. In fact, I'd understand if you never saw me as a good person ever again. I just beg of you to see that I'm trying to be a better person now. You alone have taught me a lot," he began, wringing his hands nervously.

"If you hadn't come along, I would still be the self-absorbed jerk who only cared about himself. Arrogance would still be my best friend, and pride a worthy accomplice. But then I met you. The one who, despite being put through impossibly unfair conditions, managed to pull herself together and cling onto what is right. Do you have any idea how difficult that is? How many court cases I've been through where justice was thrown aside for self-gain? But you did it—almost effortlessly, it seemed. And through it all, you've managed to humble me, undertaking a colossal task that even my own sister would find ambitious to tackle. And for that, I thank you." His voice dropped and when he spoke again, it was barely above a whisper. "How did you do it?"

"Your question is not one that I can answer. I don't know why or what causes a person's character to change. I only know that whenever possibilities of change are presented to a person, it is after only his consent that the change takes place. If you have truly taken the initiative to change, then I am proud of you. There is no one to thank or be grateful to—you should look within yourself for that."

Will gazed at her for a long time, his eyes searching hers.

"Do you know how rare it is to know people who talk like you? And even more difficult to find people who truly believe and act on those very things they speak of?"

Elizabeth shrugged. "It really shouldn't be that hard."

Will's brows lifted in question. "Why?"

"Because all you have to do is be willing to learn."

His brows lowered as they sank into a frown. "That's the hard part."

"I know. But that's what makes life worth living."

A soft smile slowly crept onto Will's face.

"You sound like you've already lived for a hundred years. Like you've already learned all the ways of the world, wise and knowing."

Elizabeth chuckled nervously. "How I wish that I am truly what you make of me. Because underneath it all, I'm just about as much a fool as you are. Maybe even more."

"Oh?" He sounded unconvinced.

"Look at me," Elizabeth said, her voice dropping to a whisper. "Is what you see really so perfect?"

"I think it's the closest thing to perfection."

Will winced at the pain that flashed across Elizabeth's face. She looked older now, with troubles creasing her smooth forehead.

"You're wrong."

Elizabeth glanced at Will and shook her head.

"I am far from perfection—very far. My life is a mess. I'm stumbling my way through a divorce, loosing much and gaining little. I've lost the man I once loved. I've lost my hope in morality; I've lost my trust in people. The personal freedom I have gained is something that I would gladly trade for a happy marriage on any day. But that's where I contradict myself, because marriage will never happen again for me. I've lost faith in love itself. But exactly what kind of human would I be if I can't even bring myself to love?"

"If you think I'm anywhere _close_ to being perfect, think again," she continued, speaking faster as the words flew out of her mouth.

"I'm pregnant with a baby whose father is quite possibly the most incorrigible kind of person in society. I find myself struggling so hard to surpass my hate for him that I nearly allowed the baby to pay for both my fault and his," her voice broke and she blinked away an angry tear.

"Don't you _see_ what kind of monster I am? What type of mother goes anywhere close to aborting her child? What decent person can I still call myself after I've come so close to committing murder?"

She stopped to catch her breath.

Will stared at Elizabeth as he listened intently to every word that escaped from her lips. She suddenly seemed so small standing before him, her petite frame shaking and trembling by all the problems in her life that were holding her down.

Without thinking, Will reached towards Elizabeth and put a hand on her shoulder as he slowly drew him closer. Surprisingly, a very dazed Elizabeth mechanically pulled in. His other arm wrapped around her and he held her—not close enough to cross the lines of propriety, but intimate enough so that he felt her body slowly relax in his grasp.

"I'm sorry," he heard her murmur.

He drew her back and looked at her. "For what?" he asked in surprise.

"I…I shouldn't have said all those things," she said, shaking her heard furiously.

"What kind of an employee tells her manager these things? I…I don't even know what to think of myself anymore. Please understand that I'm not looking for pity points or anything," she hurriedly explained, completely mortified that she had just poured her heart out to her boss.

"You are…unbelievable," Will breathed, his face incredulous to Elizabeth's shocked expression. "Is it possible for you to live even one day without blaming yourself?"

His voice softened as he studied Elizabeth's pained face that was coupled with undeniable anger at herself.

"Listen…I don't want you to think of me as your boss," he said, looking intently at Elizabeth.

"I mean, technically, I guess I am," he shrugged, "But I want us to be like equals. I am in no way your superior. Truth is, I don't even see you as my employee. I think of you more as…" he paused briefly, looking deeper into her eyes, "a friend."

Elizabeth smiled and was happy to find a very similar expression on Will's face.

Her encounter with Will that day had lifted all of her pervious defenses against him. Though she first rejected the idea of completely opening up to him, she now found it impossible to resist. He was now, undeniably, a friend—and not just any. He knew of her story as much as Sean and Gia now. He even seemed like he could become a close confider one day. Something about his willingness to listen made it easy for her to talk to him.

"So…Mr. D—Will," she said with a bright grin on her face, "Shall we get to work?"

* * *

a/n: I finally got around to updating earlier. I hope you guys liked this chapter--I decided to add in Lizzy's interaction with Will last minute. Please review!


	17. Turning Point

A/N: Hi everyone. Sorry that this chapter is a bit short, but I wanted to post something before letting this story sit for too long again. So enjoy!

* * *

She turned the doorknob to Will's office and swung the door open. The room was empty. She frowned, wondering where Will was. Maybe he had decided to take the day off. Wondering what her job would be that day without Will being there, she turned and headed for the door to her workspace. When she stepped into the room, each and every one of her thoughts was wiped away and her mouth dropped open in surprise.

It took a few moments for her mind to fully register what she had seen. The room was no longer bland, and the dull office from the day before seemed to have never existed. Elegant and colorful paintings now graced the walls, their beauty highlighted with a tasteful armchair and a coffee table tastefully placed at the corner of the room. The place looked more like a high-end showroom than an office.

Dazed, she walked over to her desk and set down her purse, a colorful bouquet of flowers in a stylish vase on the edge of the table catching her eyes. She stared at the flowers and sighed, not knowing what to think. What did he do it for?

Her head snapped up when door creaked opened and revealed a tall figure leaning against the doorframe.

"Good morning, Elizabeth," he said warmly as he flashed her a small smile.

"Hi."

Will's bright face fell slightly at Elizabeth's monosyllabic answer. When he spoke again, the confidence in his voice was gone.

"Do you…approve?" he started, gesturing his hand around the room as he pointed to the new decors, "Because I can change anything that you don't like," he quickly added, relief spreading on his face when he saw Elizabeth nod her head.

"Oh, yes," Elizabeth breathed, "The paintings are wonderful."

Will smiled wider this time, though his smile contained a hint of shyness in its exuberance.

"I thought I remembered Jane saying something about you being fond of the ocean," he shrugged, eyeing the painting of a sun-setting beach.

Elizabeth chuckled. "She's right. It's one of the reasons why I live in California. Where I grew up, the beach was a lifetime away."

Will laughed with her.

"Thank you so much. It's my favorite painting in the room," Elizabeth said, her face suddenly emitting a subtle shade of pink.

"Glad you like it."

"I love it," Elizabeth said as she felt a strong urge to find out why he'd decided to go through all the trouble. "You know, you didn't have to do it. I was perfectly okay with working in the original room."

"I know," he shrugged, "You're not one to make a fuss about things, but I just felt like the change was necessary."

"Oh," Elizabeth replied with a small frown, not quite sure of what Will was trying to say.

Will sighed, knowing that Elizabeth was after why he had suddenly decided to start bettering her life. In truth, he didn't know exactly why he'd done such a thing. It wasn't like him to treat his employees like that. In fact, he would hardly care at all if every single one of his employees complained about their offices looking ugly.

But there was something about Elizabeth now that set her apart from the rest of the population—something in her that had him completely wrapped around her as if he couldn't ignore her presence even if he wanted to. That very something being quite possibly the reason why he'd suddenly wanted Sean away from Elizabeth as far as a plausible business trip would allow.

For the first time in his life, he'd never wanted anyone so bad. He didn't know why it was impossible to resist being around her, and it frustrated him that he couldn't exactly put his finger on it. For the first time in his life, Will Darcy found himself truly confused.

"Well," Elizabeth said, eyeing Will's inanimate response, "Shall we get to work?"

"Yes, we shall," Will replied, disappearing into his office before reemerging with a stack of papers and folders. "Please get these organized as soon as you can. I have a meeting with company executives after lunch, and I'll need to use these files."

"Yes, of course," Elizabeth said as she took a seat at her desk and turned on her computer.

She watched as Will nodded in thanks and turned to make his way out. Before walking out the door, Will paused and looked at Elizabeth hesitatingly.

"Would you like to have lunch with me today?" he asked with a hopeful look.

Elizabeth stared at him for a moment, wondering if Will had just asked her out. No, she told herself. It was just a business thing. Bosses and their secretaries must have lunches with each other all the time.

* * *

Elizabeth looked at the clock. It was a quarter 'till noon and she felt her stomach growl in hunger. Her telephone rang, and she sighed before picking it up.

"Miss Bennet?" the voice on the other line asked.

"Yes?"

"I have a box of files for Mr. Darcy to be picked up at the front desk at floor 15."

"Okay, I'll be right there," she answered.

She opened the door and found the room to be empty. Will must have gone to another office. She shrugged and made her way to the elevator. When she arrived at the 15th floor, her eyes widened in surprise. The room was every bit as elaborately decorated as the entrance hall on the very first floor, and she wondered exactly how much money the company had.

"Hi, I'm here to pick up a box for Mr. Darcy?" Elizabeth said as she greeted the employee at the front desk.

"Oh," he said and pointed to a very large box at the end of the table. "It's that one over there."

Elizabeth tried to hide her surprise. She wondered what could possibly be kept in that big and very heavy looking box.

"All right," she managed to say with a small smile, "Thanks."

Trying to look professional, she strode over to the box and lifted it off the table, holding in a grunt. With a quick nod, she half stumbled back to the elevator, the weight of the box and its contents sinking into her.

Never had she been so glad to see Will's door approaching her. The company's design of many twists and turns in the halls was taking a toll on her body. Her arms were heavy and she felt as if they were going to give way at any moment now.

She saw Will sitting at his desk through the glass pane and sighed in relief. She was almost there. At precisely that moment, Will looked up and their eyes met. His jaw dropped and he gawked for a second before jumping up from his seat and opening the door for her.

"What are you doing?" he asked with a puzzled tone as he quickly grabbed the box from Elizabeth and took it into his own arms.

Elizabeth stared at Will and frowned. It wasn't fair how Will made the box seem so light.

"Just…delivering…box," she panted, shaking her arms out.

Will put the box on his desk and turned around with a frown.

"In your condition?" he demanded.

The look in his eyes intimidated her. All of a sudden, Will's light mood was gone and was replaced by unexplained frustration.

She remained silent and Will shook his head.

"Who asked you to do it?"

Unable to think under his stern gaze, Elizabeth answered without thinking, "The man at the front desk on the fifteenth floor."

Will grunted and strode over to his desk to pick up the phone.

"Hi, Gia, connect me to floor fifteen, please."

It took Elizabeth a few more moments to understand what Will was about to do. She felt a nasty twist in her stomach when she reached her conclusion and she reprimanded herself for telling Will who it was. Unfortunately, it had taken her too long to figure it out. Will was already talking to the man.

"Next time, it is my expectation of you to either personally bring up packages sent for me or have one of your men bring up the heavy deliveries. I will not let you have my secretary running your errands for you. Are we at an understanding?"

Elizabeth heard a quiet reply of acquiescence on the other line. Will hung up the phone and shook his head in disgust.

"I'm sorry," Elizabeth said softly.

Will looked at her with wide eyes. "What are you apologizing for?"

"I didn't mean to cause any trouble. Had I been any more physically fit, none of this would have happened. It wasn't your employee's fault."

"Elizabeth, you really are a very absurd person sometimes. Did you know that?" Will asked, amusement written on his face. "While I'm here trying to revive chivalry, you're there trying to carry the weight of the world upon yourself."

Elizabeth opened her mouth to object.

"Save your arguments, please," Will said with a soft smile, "You're in no condition to carry heavy objects, and that is the undeniable truth. Didn't your doctor already tell you that?"

Elizabeth looked at Will and smiled. She had run out of words to say.

"Thanks, Will."

Will chuckled. "Are you hungry? Let's go and grab something to eat."

Elizabeth rubbed her empty stomach and nodded enthusiastically. As she walked back into her office to gather up her things, she couldn't help but think about everything Will had done for her that day. His thoughtfulness had touched her, and she felt a surge of emotions cloud her thinking.

A conflicting whirl of feelings left her alienated in her own thoughts. She wanted both more and less of him. As much as she wanted to embrace everything about Will, she also wanted to hide from it. She had little faith left in the opposite sex and she doubted that she had enough trust left to invest in another man. She wanted to protect herself before something went horribly wrong again. But all the same, she wondered if it was even possible that she could stay away.

* * *

In a small café not too far from Ad-Genesis, Elizabeth and Will settled down for lunch. Elizabeth decided that the place was a delightful one to eat at, and looked around approvingly at the restaurant's simple yet charming Italian décor.

"So what's up after lunch?" Elizabeth asked, peering over her menu at Will.

Will made a face and wrinkled his nose. "Another one of those boring meetings."

Elizabeth gasped in mock shock. "My, my, what will your company executives think of you if they heard you say that?"

"Eh," Will said with a shrug, "They know that I'm not very into the company."

Studying Will's nonchalant expression carefully, she said, "Dare I ask why?"

The waiter came by to take their orders, and Elizabeth quietly waited for Will to answer her question.

Taking a sip of his iced tea, Will replied, "The company belonged to my father and was passed down to me when he died. Ad-Genesis was his dream and vision—not mine."

Elizabeth pursed her lips as she listened until a question popped into her head and she asked, "Then why didn't you sell it?"

Will's eyes widened in surprise as if Elizabeth had just spoken complete nonsense.

"Sell it?" he inquired in a wondrous voice, "I could never do such a thing. Not after all those years my father spent building the company as it meant so much to him. When everything else fell apart in our lives, it was this company that kept everyone together. This was the one thing that never changed, and I liked it that way. I found it oddly comforting."

"So are you doing all this for your father?" questioned Elizabeth, seeing Will's company for the first time in a completely different light.

"I don't really know anymore," Will shrugged, absentmindedly tapping his glass of tea. "At first, I thought I had to do it for the family. But then as time wore on, the meaning changed and I wanted for the first time in my life to really go after what I liked."

Elizabeth nodded in understanding and said, "So that's why you decided to become a lawyer and have Sean look after the company while you were busy."

"Yeah," Will answered, turning his head to look out the window. "But you know, it's hard pulling off a double-agent duty. And recently, it's been even harder."

"Yeah, with Sean gone, I can imagine how much work you have to do by yourself," Elizabeth sympathized with a half smile.

"No, no. That's not what I mean at all," Will said slowly in hesitation, his finger now tapping the edge of the table.

"Then what is it?" she asked in full curiosity, her eyes meeting Will's.

"Law is just…" Will began, casting his eyes down at the table, "…not the same for me anymore."

"And why ever not? You're good at what you do, aren't you?" Elizabeth asked, after thanking the waiter who set down her order.

"Or so I would have you think," Will answered with a small chuckle.

Elizabeth narrowed her eyes and creased her brows in thought. "I'm not quite sure exactly what you're getting at."

Will cleared his throat.

"I'd always thought that the best thing about law was how it could solve any problem. Whenever something was in dispute, law was the one definitive standard that offered a conclusive ending to things," Will said, as he chased a meatball around his plate before putting it into his mouth.

"Whenever justice was put into question, law was always there to answer it," Will continued, dropping the fork to his plate before he spoke again with a much softer tone, "But after I got involved with your case, law just wasn't the same anymore."

Taking a bite of her pizza, Elizabeth chewed slowly before asking, "Why?"

"Where was the justice in your case? What you sought for rightfully, law could not give you. What you deserved fairly, law did not satisfy," Will explained, eyeing Elizabeth closely, "I started law because I wanted to see some justice in the world. So many things slip by the law and people are victims because of it."

Will shook his head and laughed softly to himself before saying, "I had this foolish idea that I could be some kind of a superhero who laid down the law and saved the world from evil."

"And so much for that," he finished with another shake of his head. "Before I knew it, I'd become one of those very people I despised."

It took Elizabeth a while to take in everything Will was telling her. She had never bothered looking at Will's perspective and was greatly surprised by how he had taken things. Contrary to her initial belief, Will wasn't as shallow as she first misjudged him to be. There had been a struggle with his moral conscience after all.

"I wanted to back out of your case somewhere in the middle. I was even coming up with plans to protect Gia in other ways. But you know what?" Will asked, looking intently at Elizabeth, "My pride wouldn't let me. I couldn't back out of the case because I wanted to keep my reputation. I was the one of the top lawyers in LA, and I didn't want that to change. I didn't want one case to throw my dream away. But then again, it was that one case that defied the core to everything I believed in."

Thoughts whirled in Elizabeth's head and she could not believe that Will had gone through such a conflict within himself.

"So now I'm just focusing on the company's business. I'm keeping my distance from law for a bit—taking some time off," Will finished, wiping his mouth with a napkin with a resolute look on his face.

"But when you're ready, you'll go back, right?" Elizabeth asked with a sense of urgency in her voice.

After a few hesitant moments, Will finally answered, "I honestly don't know."

Elizabeth did not know what to say. As much as she wanted to comfort him and encourage him, she figured that she didn't know Will well enough to really offer any pieces of advice. Even so, she wanted to tell him to go back and focus on what he loved to do. But something else also stopped her from saying anything. Something within her wanted to keep Will working at the company so that she could see him everyday.

Keeping her silence, she gave him a sympathetic glance instead, and it wasn't long before Will spoke again as he quickly changed the subject.

"Are you ready to go? The meeting is in fifteen minutes."

"Oh, yes. I almost forgot!" Elizabeth exclaimed, quickly finishing the rest of her pizza crust. She had been listening so closely to Will's story that she had been eating an incredibly slow pace. "I'm so sorry!"

For the first time during lunch, Will's mood seemed to lighten up as he let out a small chuckle.

"Here we go again...the Miss Bennet who's always apologizing," he teased good-naturedly.

Elizabeth blushed and bowed her head.

"I have an idea," Will said all of a sudden with a bright smile, "why don't you join me for the meeting?"

"Me?" Elizabeth asked with a surprised gasp. "I…I…can do that?"

Will threw back his head and laughed heartedly. "You're Elizabeth—what is it that you can't do?"

Elizabeth gave Will an uncertain glance. "I don't really know anything about commercials, though. I mean, honestly, I haven't got the slightest clue about—"

"Do you watch TV?" Will cut in as he leaned a little closer towards Elizabeth.

"Um…yeah."

"Then you're covered," Will reassured Elizabeth with a nod as he thanked the waiter for the check.

"What are you doing?" Elizabeth asked, her attention immediately shifting to the bill Will was holding.

"What everyone has to do after a meal," Will answered as he took cash out of his wallet.

"Exactly," Elizabeth said with a determined look on her face, "so where's my share?"

Will looked at Elizabeth with feigned innocence and frowned as if he was confused.

"What share?"

"You know what I'm talking about. You don't think I'm going to let you pay for me, do you?"

"Uh…" Will stuttered, scratching his head, "Perhaps not. But that is not your choice."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes, "Just let me see the bill, please."

"Sorry, but no," Will responded tersely as he stood up to hand the check back to the waiter.

"Will…" Elizabeth said, rubbing her forehead, "If I had known you were going to do this, I would have asked for separate bills beforehand."

"Well, good thing you didn't, because this is my treat to you."

"Will, I refuse to eat with you ever again if you're going to do this to me," Elizabeth said sternly as she eyed Will closely. She hardly allowed men she'd dated in the past to pay for her meals and the last thing she wanted was for her boss to pay for her lunch.

"You know, most people are happy when I pay for their food," Will said, lifting his eyebrows in a curious expression, "But I've yet to figure out what makes you happy."

"If you want to make me happy, then please let me pay for my half," Elizabeth begged, resisting the urge to hunt down the waiter and ask to see the bill for herself.

"It's all been settled already. Come on, we need to get going or we'll be late," Will said, standing up and putting on his coat.

Elizabeth opened her mouth to speak as she crossed her arms disapprovingly.

"Fine," she said, pursing her lips, "but be warned that this time is the first and last time that this will ever happen."

Will walked to the door and held it open for Elizabeth.

"You're welcome," he said in a singsong voice coupled with a small laugh that was momentarily cut short when he caught Elizabeth shooting him a mock glare.

* * *

Walking next to Elizabeth on the way back to their offices, Will cast a sidelong glance at her and said, "Great job with the advertisement proposal today. I think AT&T was really happy with the idea."

"Thanks," Elizabeth replied, thinking back to the meeting earlier that day. Their meeting with the phone company had gone well and a contract had been signed for a series of multi-million commercial plans.

"It's about time they finally switched to Ad-Genesis as their official advertisement group. We've been trying to persuade them for ages that they needed to gear their commercials towards the younger generation."

"Yeah," Elizabeth responded, "Nowadays with texting and whatnot, teenagers are the ones parents think about most when selecting the cheapest and most beneficial plan. Come up with the most affordable plan for texting and other online services, and you've got yourself most of the phone using population."

Elizabeth smiled to herself as she thought back to the days when Lydia and Kitty argued with their mother over a three hundred dollar phone bill. Both of her sisters spent hours complaining to Mrs. Bennet how impossible it was to get boys without texting or calling every few minutes. Elizabeth wondered what kind of guy could actually stand such clingy maniacs and was not surprised that her sisters often pouted when the targets of their superfluous affections did not reply.

"You seem to know a lot about the younger generation," Will enthused with as they stepped into the elevator.

"I have the two cattiest younger sisters on the planet," Elizabeth answered as she shook her head in hopelessness, "I know way more about their age than I would ever want to know."

"I think I would like to meet them sometime," Will answered, his expression thoughtful.

"Are you serious?" Elizabeth asked, her mouth wide open. "I think you should seriously reconsider."

"Oh yeah?" Will asked, half smiling at Elizabeth as mused over Elizabeth's shocked reaction.

"Yeah. Unless you want Lydia to write an epic novel of your handsome face and fortune on her MySpace blog and Kitty to call you 'honey-bunny' fifty times a day, I suggest you stay away."

"Hmm…a novel about my handsome face," Will said as he pretended to think, a smile spreading over his face, "That should feed my ego for a good long while."

After a moment's hesitation, he continued, "Although come to think, I am already flattered enough that _you_ suggested my good looking self as a possible topic of your sister's passionate masterpiece."

Elizabeth's face turned bright red and she felt her cheeks sting with embarrassment. Silently, she scolded herself for not paying attention to what she was saying.

Catching onto Elizabeth's silent embarrassment, Will quickly added, "No worries, though. If I had a brother, I'm sure he would be writing the same of you."

The glow on Elizabeth's face was now matched with a subtle on Will's. They walked silently onwards in the hallway; the only sound being the echoing of their footsteps. Elizabeth did not know how to respond and merely gave a nervous chuckle.

When they reached their offices, Will signaled for Elizabeth to stand by his desk.

"I've been wanting for someone to help me with this for ages," he said, handing Elizabeth a small leather book.

Elizabeth took the book and opened it, confused as she flipped through the book's pages. Will had given her his personal planner.

"I've never really trusted anyone with this," Will said slowly, "Since Gia was already busy with her pile of work, I couldn't think of anyone else to help me with my hectic schedule."

A quick glance at the book told her that Will's schedule was busy and extremely full. Nearly every page was covered with scribbles and scrawls of dates and events.

"So," Elizabeth began with an unsure look at Will, " you want me to remind you of your dates?"

"That and more," Will said with a nod, "I'd also like you to accompany me to some events. I find it rather difficult at times to remember everything that people tell me. I think it'll be good for someone to help me pay attention to all those conversations. From what I've noticed, you happen to have a very good memory. And it doesn't hurt that most people seem to enjoy your company very much."

Elizabeth was frozen in her stance. She had no idea why Will was giving her all these privileges. If word got out that she was now Will's new right hand, she cringed at the thought of how many women would be after her to snatch her position. But all the same, Will's offers excited her and she found an exhilarating thrill in her new occupation.

"I can't believe you're letting me do all this," Elizabeth breathed, "but I think I'll like it very much, thanks."

"I'm glad you do," Will responded, drawing one step closer to Elizabeth. Standing next to her, he peered over her, his head an inch away from Elizabeth's face.

"Let's see what we've got coming up," he said, reaching over to flip the pages of his planner.

Elizabeth felt Will's warm breath on her neck and she felt her arm burn where his hand had gently brushed seconds ago. Her breathing quickened and her heart raced.

"Coca-cola's Board of Executives installment party," she read, her voice unsteady and nervous as she took in another fresh scent of Will's cologne.

"Oh yes, the party hosted by on of our biggest clients," Will said happily, "Perfect."

He gave Elizabeth's shoulders an encouraging squeeze before walking back over to sit down in his chair.

"You are free on Saturday night, right?" he asked Elizabeth with a hopeful grin.

Elizabeth nodded.

"So then it's settled. I have some business to take care of tomorrow so I won't be here," Will said with a sigh as he reached over to turn on his computer.

"But," he began cheerfully, his light blue eyes twinkling happily to match his wide smile, "I will see you on Saturday."

* * *

A/N: Please review! It'll really encourage and help me with the writing process. For some reason, it felt like a lot of reviewers went on hiatus last chapter. So please take a quick second to drop a thought and thanks for reading!


	18. Epiphany

Author's Note: I profusely apologize for this inexcusably late update. I've been really busy with school work and it took me a long while to write this chapter. Parts of it were written weeks ago, while other parts of it were written just today. This has not gone through my Beta yet, so apologies for errors.

Also, I decided to combine the old chapter 18 with chapter 17. So this is like the OFFICIAL chapter 18. Sorry for any confusion.

* * *

Elizabeth threw herself onto her bed just as her exhausted muscles gave out. The three hours of sleep she had managed to crank in did little to help keep her awake during the long hours spent in court early that morning. Although she was slightly relieved that George's new lawyer was in no way as proficient as Will, she still dreaded walking into the small and clammy wooden room. But even so, Elizabeth knew that her life was looking better than it had been in a long time.

For one, she had finally come to terms with George's move on her inheritance. Though she was still hurt from his betrayal, she no longer cared if she came out of the divorce without a single penny. She understood her father's token of love and she didn't need material proof to remind herself of that. Working at Ad-Genesis was providing her with the financial stability that she needed and she couldn't be happier with her job.

It was nearing the end of March now, and Elizabeth couldn't help but notice the bump on her belly that was growing slightly larger by the week. The doctor had asked her if she wanted to know the baby's gender, but Elizabeth opted not to. She didn't want any more reasons to get attached. She was nearly four months into her pregnancy and the idea of having a tiny life growing inside of her was undeniably becoming fonder and fonder by the minute, though Elizabeth still found the idea rather hard to believe. She wondered how one could fall in so much love with something one couldn't even see. It seemed almost surreal.

As her eyelids slowly drooped and her sense of consciousness gradually drifted away, Elizabeth put a hand over her stomach and fell asleep.

_She walked through the glass doors with a tall and handsome man by her side, his light blue eyes never once leaving her angelic face. _

"_My lovely secretary," he proudly introduced to all the reporters who crowded around them. The paparazzi had gone out of control, and blinding shots flashed upon the faces of their targets over and over again. _

_She was not usually one to enjoy the spotlight. Too much attention gave her nervous flutters in her stomach and left her with insecure self-consciousness. But this time, it was different. This time, the attention made her feel happy, safe, and secure as the man's strong arm smoothly wrapped around her waist and expertly guided her away from all the cameras and the noise. She relaxed and leaned as in as close as she dared to and walked beside him, footsteps in synch. _

_A speech was made, thunderous applause filled the air, and a row of butlers opened bottles of champagne with deafening pops that vibrated throughout the room. The quartet outside started to play and the party had officially begun. _

_He led her into a grand ballroom where music, laughter, and well-paced footsteps met her ears. He introduced her to a couple people, all of whom she responded with warm greetings and friendly smiles. But she did very little talking otherwise. Too much of her attention had been stolen away by the gentleman standing beside her. _

_She watched in captivation the way he interacted with his business partners. Never had she heard speech so eloquently spoken or a rich tenor voice so perfect as it glided skillfully over each and every word. Her ears worked diligently to capture every syllable before it faded away._

_Hands were shaken, people left, and his eyes drifted back to her. She blushed under his piercing gaze and her eyes shyly averted to the floor. She stared at her shoes and fumbled for something to say. _

"_Please excuse me," she said, her heart racing within her. She needed someplace to go to calm herself down. "I'll be right back."_

_But she felt a little rude for her sudden haste to distance herself and added, "This is a wonderful party. I've never met more gracious hosts or seen a ballroom filled with this many beautiful women before." _

_She smiled before she gave a little nod and walked away. But she did not know that he was staring intently after her as he muttered a phrase as loud as his courage allowed. _

"_But you must know that I have eyes for only you."_

_When they met again, it was twenty minutes later, and she did not know that he had been looking for her the entire time. _

"_There you are," he said with a bright smile._

"_Here I am," she answered with a coy grin. _

"_Here we are," they both thought in their heads. _

_Silence fell between them and everything else seemed to fade away. It was just the two of them facing each other with eager anticipation, neither of them knowing what to say. Courage dropped as quick as it rose, quickening the paces in both hearts as two pairs of eyes deftly searched the other's expression. It was a quiet waiting game that both of them wanted to win yet secretly wanted to lose. _

"_Would you do me the honor of having this dance?" he finally chanced to ask, fighting back the instinctive urge to wince and protect himself from any signs of rejection. _

"_It would be my honor to do so," came the quiet answer layered with excitement. _

_He took her hand and led her to the dance floor. It had been years since he last danced with a girl, and he gave her a nervous smile before the music began. Hands secured tightly around her waist, he pulled her closer to him, losing himself in the rhythmic sways of the dance. _

_He studied her steps and concentrated on his own, noting his partner's expertise at dancing. Elizabeth seemed calm and serene as she relaxed in his grasp and moved in synch with him. He had never been so close to her, and for the first time realized just how much her presence was able to render him speechless. No one else he knew had the power to do that. _

"_Do you dance much?"_

_Her voice broke his thoughts and Will's eyes immediately met hers. _

"_No," he answered quietly, suddenly becoming shy. "Not much at all."_

"_Why?" he quickly added, "Am I bad at it?"_

_Elizabeth studied his worried look for a moment before giving a soft chuckle. "No, not at all. I was about to say that you dance very well."_

_Will smiled, though still a bit unsure about his ability to dance. _

"_What about you? Do you dance a lot?"_

_After a twirl and a spin, Elizabeth replied, "Once upon a time in college."_

_Will gave her a crooked smile and the couple continued to dance. The music slowed and the pair's movements changed into more gradual and fluid movements. Will drew her even closer to him, and Elizabeth stood an inch away from his chest. She took in his scent and the hands she placed around his shoulders moved gradually upwards toward his neck._

_Slowly, the hands he had secured around her waist found their way up until they cupped the sides of her face. They stared into each other eyes, and for a moment, the world seemed to stand still. His head leaned in and her head followed in suit. They drew closer and closer. So close that he could see every eyelash on her eye, and the little freckles on her face. He continued to draw closer to her until he was just an inch away from her lips. His own lips burned as if their closeness had ignited some sort of a hot and radiant energy. But as soon as he felt the coolness of her lips brush against his, no other feeling in the world seemed to matter._

_Elizabeth and Will pulled apart for a short moment, both trying to control their racing hearts and heavy breathing. A second later, it was Elizabeth who now cupped her hands on Will's face and drew him closer to her. Willingly, he succumbed to her cue, and his forehead gently met hers. She took a quick breath, closed her eyes, and—_

"Ahh!" Elizabeth screamed as she sat straight up in bed, chest heaving with unprecedented shock.

It wasn't often that she remembered her dreams, but this particular one had a feeling so real that it'd come back to haunt her even when reality had taken hold. Half of the dream _had_ been real, after all. At the party Will had taken her to a few weeks ago, there was music and even dancing involved. Elizabeth had never been so surprised when Will asked her the honor of having the last dance. Elizabeth had enjoyed that dance, for it had been one that brought the two closer together on an emotional level that could have never taken place in the working atmosphere. She clearly remembered the dance ending that night and recalled the reluctant feeling she felt when Will dropped his arms around her. She cringed as she remembered the small, yet strong nostalgic feeling she felt for wanting it all to rewind and happen all over again.

But this time, the end to their dance had been different. In the dream, they had kissed. And had she not waken up, there would have been another kiss. Elizabeth frowned and shook her head violently as she tried to ignore and forget everything. After all, it was only a dream in a world that existed only while she slept. She rolled out of bed and looked at her clock. It was nearly three thirty in the afternoon.

A blinking red light caught her attention and Elizabeth reached over to play her messages in the answering machine. The first was her mother calling her to ask how she was doing, the second an advertisement on health insurance, and the third was from Gia asking Elizabeth if she wanted to go on a picnic in the park by her house at four-thirty. Since she had not spent time with Gia in a while, Elizabeth figured that she might as well fill up the schedule of her empty afternoon.

But first, Elizabeth wanted to call her mother back before she forgot. Elizabeth groaned when the dial tone turned into the answering machine.

"_So you've decided to give us a call. Well too bad, we're not here," greeted Mary's monotonous voice unceremoniously. "Do you think we've got nothing better to do than sit here waiting for you to call?" Lydia continued. "Unless you're hot, of course!" Kitty chirped, "Because then, we'd definitely be here!" "But we're not, so please just leave a message," finished Mary in an exasperated voice that clearly showed her annoyance toward her sisters. _

Elizabeth shook her head hopelessly but couldn't help but smile. It was her family's tradition to fight over whose voice was heard over the answering machine. In the end, they always ended up sharing the message with each person saying a line or two.

"Hi Mom, Kit, Lid, and Mary. It's Lizzy and I'm just calling to tell you guys that I'm doing fine. I went to my checkup the other day and the baby's doing just great. I'm still looking into the whole adoption thing…but no worries, I think I'll have all of that sorted out eventually. So I'll talk to you guys later okay? Love you all and miss you!" Elizabeth said before heavily sighing and hanging up the phone.

* * *

"It's nice too see you, Elizabeth," a deep voice behind her said.

Elizabeth whipped around and found herself face to face with Will. She had just gotten out of her car and was about to go looking for Gia and her husband.

Surprised, Elizabeth answered, "I didn't know you were coming."

A burst of excitement rushed through Elizabeth and she found herself speechless in her delight of seeing Will so unexpectedly out of the office.

Will laughed. "I didn't know you were coming either."

Both of their eyes narrowed before revelation dawned upon them and they both reached the conclusion at the same time.

"Gia," they said together, eyes lit up in comprehension.

An awkward silence settled between the pair and Elizabeth didn't know what to say. What else was there to say when one realizes that her friend had just tried to set her up with her boss?

"So…how was your day?" Will asked as he tried to divert the silence as they walked towards the park.

Elizabeth's mind flashed back to the dream she had with Will not too long ago and her cheeks turned bright red.

"Err…busy," she said as she made a great effort not to think about her dream. "I went into court today and nothing eventful happened there," she shrugged.

"Oh," Will mouthed, "Is everything going well with that?"

"Yea, but all the procedures are such a pain," Elizabeth complained, "all the paperwork and documents. It's way easier getting married than getting divorced."

Will looked at her sympathetically. "Once you get the steps settled, it'll be a lot simpler."

Elizabeth sighed. "Hopefully."

"Funny," Will said all of a sudden. "I don't see Gia or Keith anywhere. Although she did tell me to meet her under the big tree in the middle of the park."

Elizabeth shrugged. "She might be running late."

However, as the two made their way closer towards the center of the park, all they saw was a red-checkered picnic cloth sprawled across the green grass. On top of the cloth was a basket and a set of utensils for two.

"I don't believe it," Elizabeth muttered as the two came to a stop and stared at the spot under the tree. She looked at Will with a piercing glance.

Will quickly put his hands up to declare his innocence. "I promise you that I knew nothing of this."

Elizabeth bent down to pick up a folded white card on top of the basket.

_Enjoy_, it read. _Sorry that we won't be joining you this time. _

"I…I'm sorry about this," Will quickly said, nervous to see how Elizabeth was going to respond. "I apologize for my sister's reckless behavior."

Elizabeth couldn't help but let out a small smile upon seeing Will's anxious expression. Secretly, she didn't mind being stuck alone with Will and even felt a little bit of gratitude towards Gia. Lately, she had been rather looking forward to her days spent at the office with him.

"That's okay," Elizabeth answered, "don't worry about it. Gia's enthusiasm means no harm."

"It's been ages since I'd last had a picnic," said Will as he looked around the park, clearly still taking in the fact that Gia had outsmarted him once again as the overly enthused matchmaker. "Shall we?" he asked and signaled for Elizabeth to sit.

Elizabeth settled down onto the cloth and gazed at the park, her eyes feasting on the flowers in bloom. She had always loved spring for its sense of life and vigor.

"Do you like flowers?" Will asked as he watched Elizabeth admire the flowers.

"Yes," she answered, "They're beautiful—especially those roses over there," she continued, pointing at the roses further away from them.

She smiled wistfully as she thought back to her childhood days when she and Jane would play in the garden all day long, pretending that their prince had brought them a bouquet of their favorite flowers. It was her favorite game to play.

"Are roses your favorite?"

Elizabeth nodded. "I love how they come in so many different colors."

She looked up and met Will's eyes, a wild thought in her mind suddenly flashing an image of Will standing by the door with a bouquet of roses for her. She couldn't help but smile at the thought, though part of her was perplexed on how her mind would even dare to conjure up an image like that. It was like dreaming an impossible dream.

"You would like roses," he said with an amused smile, "And I would be allergic to them."

Elizabeth's eyes widened. "You're allergic to flowers?"

Will laughed. "Especially roses. I remember once when I was a kid, I went into our garden to pick out some flowers for Gia. I touched one of the rose petals and made the worst mistake of my life. My entire body broke out in red rashes and my face was bright red for a whole week. The kids called me 'monkey butt face' for a whole year after that," he chuckled to himself at the memory, "and I haven't touched another rose petal since."

Elizabeth looked at Will and couldn't help but burst out laughing when she imagined his face red with bright pink blotches.

"What are you laughing at?" he asked, eyebrows raise, "Haven't you ever gotten laughed at in school?"

When Elizabeth gained control of her laughter and stopped, she sobered and solemnly replied, "Who hasn't?"

Will smirked as he studied Elizabeth's resigned expression and continued on.

"Let's hear it."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes.

"Come on," Will urged with a gently nudge at Elizabeth's shoulder, "It can't be worse than mine."

Elizabeth snorted as a jolt of shock shot down her arm at his touch. "We'll see about that."

"When I was in high school," she began, "there was one year where my skin went crazy and I had massive breakouts on my face. My mom took me to see dermatologists, but nothing they gave me ever helped with my acne. So I had no choice but walk around school while people pointed out the many replicas of Mt. Fujii and Mt. Kilimanjaro on my face."

A spark of playfulness shone in Will's eyes and Elizabeth saw his lips edge upwards into a gentle curve.

"There," she answered with narrowed eyes, face flushing in embarrassment. "I told you. Happy?"

Will nodded.

"I can only imagine what you think I looked in high school," Elizabeth went on with a frown on her forehead.

Will shrugged. "At least you're all cleared up now, because other people aren't as fortunate. Do you see this?" Will asked as he pointed to a spot on right cheek.

Elizabeth's heart quickened as she leaned in to get a look of what he was pointing at. Half of her was so distracted at their close distance that she could hardly focus her eyes. The dream she had earlier that day came into her mind again and she fought to get it all out of her head. Finally, she managed to let out a breath and answered, "What happened?"

"You have just seen Crater Lake. Courtesy of Chicken Pox."

Something about the way he's said it and the pompous face he made caused Elizabeth to choke with laughter. It didn't take long until Will joined in with her as they both laughed freely, allowing their good humor to fill the atmosphere around them.

Suddenly, Elizabeth stopped and gasped. Will's eyes shot straight to her, his face concerned.

Elizabeth took a deep breath.

"Oh my god. I swear something just moved inside of me."

Will looked at Elizabeth, his face confused for a moment until a conclusion reached his thoughts.

"The baby?" he asked with a perplexed expression mixed with wonder.

"I…I don't know…I guess," Elizabeth said, dazed and stunned. Did babies move around so soon? "It lasted for only a second or two, and it felt like some sort of a brief flutter," she explained, trying to find the exact words to describe what she'd just experienced, "and it was unlike anything I've ever felt before."

Will flashed back to his memories and remembered the period of time where his mother had been pregnant with Gia. He recalled patting her belly and singing to the baby when all of a sudden, a hard and fist-like structure gently nudged and poked against the palm of his hand.

Seeing that Elizabeth was still shocked by what had just happened, he opened up the picnic basket and said, "You think the baby might be protesting in hunger?"

Elizabeth nodded and rubbed her stomach. "Probably. I haven't really eaten much all day."

Will handed Elizabeth a sandwich and the two ate in silence while Elizabeth lost herself in thoughts. Up until that moment, the entire pregnancy ordeal had seemed so unreal. And in a single short-lived moment, the veil of fantasy had been ripped away and replaced by a startling reality. The little jerk she felt in her stomach had made her really realize that there was a growing life inside of her. As she ate her sandwich, Elizabeth vowed to take better care of her health from then on. There was now even more tangible fact that she was responsible for more than just her own life. There were two of them now, she realized. And the two of them were going to stick it through and make it together.

After the picnic, Elizabeth thanked Will for the food and drove back to her house. There were two things she couldn't get out of her mind on the way home: the baby and more importantly—Will. The day had brought them even closer than before, and Elizabeth found herself thinking about him more than ever. So much that she was having trouble getting him out of her head.

She called the one person she could and was relieved when Jane's voice greeted her at the end of the line.

"God help me, Jane. I think I'm in love."

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A/N: What did you think? Please review--you guys did a great job last chapter and those were really a big part of what kept me from putting this story on a temporary hiatus.


	19. Getting Near to Baby

Author's Note: I know it's been a while...a really long while. But I hope you guys haven't given up on me yet. School and certain family matters had gotten into the way of things. My grandpa had fallen seriously ill, and my entire family rushed out of the country to be there with him. But now that school is out of the way and my grandpa is recovering well, I rushed to get this chapter done. I hope you enjoy reading this one as much as I enjoyed writing it! I will be updating more regularly now. (:

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"I liked them," Charlotte nodded approvingly as the pair watched the couple get up and disappear through the door.

"Me too," Elizabeth sighed as she gathered up her purse.

"You would think that more of them would turned out to be suitable, though," Charlotte complained with a disgruntled shrug.

They had just gone through half a dozen interviews with prospective parents, and the future of Elizabeth's baby had been rather bleak until the last couple showed up.

"Agreed," said Elizabeth with a frown, "I'm not considering anyone except for the ones we just met."

Charlotte snorted. "It's not like you have any other choice. I mean, come on, let's face it—couple number one: the man dressed like a woman and the woman had a high-pitched chicken voice. So unless you want your baby getting squawked at…" she said, counting off her fingers, "Couple number two: husband seemed okay, but the woman was a bit too obsessively compulsive. Did you see the number of times she wiped her hands with antibacterial? Unless you want your baby stuck in a plastic bubble rolling around like a hamster in a wheel, I'd say no to them as well."

"Couple number three: The guy dressed like it was minus forty degrees outside and his wife obviously had the idea of clothes and undergarment mixed up. There was about a foot of fabric on her entire body. Totally disastrous to any growing child's accumulating taste, if you ask me."

Elizabeth laughed. "But you got to admit, the last couple seem to be very nice people."

"Yeah, either that, or we've met so many messed up people a Martian could march right up and seem perfectly normal," answered Charlotte.

Elizabeth's face fell. "You didn't like them?" she asked, thick worry and stress present in her voice. She was already five months into her pregnancy, and the parents for her child had to be picked soon in order for the paperwork to be completed on time before the baby was born.

Charlotte shrugged. "It's hardly possible to tell whether or not someone is good with one meeting. Even with many meetings, you can never really tell who a person really is."

Elizabeth grimaced. She had learned her lesson with Will: appearances and judgments were hardly reliable sources to measure anyone's integrity.

"Well don't beat yourself over the head with it," Charlotte began, "Are you sure you don't want to just raise the kid yourself?"

Tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear, Elizabeth responded, "I can't raise a baby. I'm not ready to, I don't know how to, and I can't trust myself to give the baby a proper home. I'd always imagined raising a kid in a healthy household. Being a single mother is hardly the way I want to do it."

"I know it's your choice, but I just don't want you to forget the one possibility that you'll always have," said Charlotte as she put an arm around Elizabeth.

Elizabeth nodded and glanced at her watch. Seeing that it was already ten past one, she cursed under her breath.

"I was only supposed to be gone an hour and half…" she began, picking up her pace as she rushed towards the street, "I'm supposed to be in a meeting with Will in twenty minutes."

She gave Charlotte a quick wave and hurried on to her car. She drove as fast as she could, not bothering to think much about the many different couples she had just met. She breathed a sigh of relief when she reached the office with five minutes to spare.

"So tell me, Ms. Bennet, what called for you to run ten miles on this fine afternoon?" a deep voice behind her asked with amusement.

Elizabeth whipped around and found herself looking up at Will. She opened her mouth and closed it again, catching her breath in exhaustion. Her already thumping heart speeding faster at his sudden appearance, the sound of his voice only quickening the pulse that ran vigorously through her veins.

"I met…with prospective parents…just now…" she breathed, sinking into a nearby chair.

Will's eyes glanced momentarily at her growing belly and his eyes shone with understanding.

"And how did that go?" Will asked, curiosity growing in his voice.

Elizabeth recounted the couples briefly, chuckling along with Will in places where he laughed.

"Sorry to hear about those weird couples you met, but the last pair seems to be a bit more normal," he commented as Elizabeth nodded in agreement.

The two made their way towards the meeting room and Elizabeth caught herself unintentionally bumping into Will along the way. She crossed her fingers and hoped that he hadn't noticed, but little did she know that Will had already glanced at her out of the corner of his eyes and stifled a small and subtle crooked smile.

Over the last couple of weeks, she and Will had been spending time together quite often. Will always had some sort of excuse to see her, and she never had any objections to them. If there was one thing she'd learned in a while, it was that it was becoming increasingly impossible to stay away from him. The bitterness in their past seemed to have dissolved almost completely, and she found herself wanting to be more with him with every passing of the day. Although much of their time spent together was in the office, Elizabeth didn't mind. She found herself looking forward to the after hours where she and Will would spend hours discussing their next meeting with clients or coming up with a new marketing strategy. His intellect intrigued her as much as it appealed to him, and the more they learned about each other's way of thinking drew them both closer together.

When the meeting was over, Will looked at his watch as he walked alongside Elizabeth on the way back to his office.

"It's nearly six. The meeting lasted an hour longer than I thought it would," he said rather apologetically, since Elizabeth usually got off work at five thirty. He saw Elizabeth swiftly lift an arm to her growing stomach and knew at once that she was hungry.

"Would you like to go have dinner?" Will chanced, half relieved to get out what he had wanted to say a few hours ago and half nervous to see how she would respond.

A slight crease appeared on Elizabeth's forehead and she hesitated. "I would like to, but I have a doctor's appointment in half an hour for a checkup on the baby," she answered, patting her stomach.

She tried to hide her disappointment. Although she was still getting used to the idea of her growing affections for Will, she couldn't help but secretly hope for a night where he would ask her out and they could spend some time together out of the office. Her mind flashed back to the picnic a while ago, and she sighed as she remembered the warm familiarity she felt around him, and how perfectly he fit her as much as he seemed to clash against every bit of her persona.

"I can wait for you," he answered almost immediately, silently berating himself for seeming far too eager.

Elizabeth smiled a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. "I wouldn't want to hold you up. You must be hungry too. It's been a long day for everyone."

Will shrugged. "I honestly don't mind waiting. As long as I get to have dinner with you in the end, I'll wait for however long I have to."

Elizabeth blushed and averted her gaze to look at the floor. Will shifted uneasily in his stance when Elizabeth remained silent.

"Of course, I'll come only if it's all right with you. I wouldn't want to intrude on your personal privacy," he began, his voice full of uneven flutters, "We can always have dinner on another night. I shouldn't be the one getting in between your schedule. It's okay, we'll eat some other time. I mean, people eat dinner all the time, every day, in fact…and…"

"If you insist on waiting for me, we can have dinner later," Elizabeth interrupted, cutting Will off as she mustered up all her strength not to laugh.

It was one thing to see a man lose himself in a string of words, but it was another thing to see Will Darcy, the famous speech articulator at loss to put across a coherent idea, fumbling clumsily with words over such a simple matter. She had never in their acquaintance heard him blabber on so hastily before and dared herself to think that his nervous rambling might have had something to do with her.

"So I guess I'll meet you at the place where we're going to eat?" Elizabeth asked, hoping that her appointment wasn't going to take too long. She was starving.

"Yes. Give me a call when you're finished and we can figure out a place to go," Will answered as he watched her go.

Elizabeth hurried to her car and got in. She didn't want to be late for the appointment and have the person behind her go in front of her. She stuck her keys into the car ignition and turned. The car seemed to whirl to life at first, but it was clear that something was wrong with it when it started to wheeze a couple seconds later. After trying to start up her car a second and third time, Elizabeth threw her hands up into the air and groaned. Her car was dead. Great, she thought. Now she was going to have to spend a load of money to fix the car on top of all her other medical expenses.

Grunting in frustration, she dug out her phone and flipped it opened to call Will. But before the dial tone even rang, Elizabeth looked up to see Will knocking on the window to the passenger side. She gasped in surprise before rolling down the window.

"You scared me," she breathed, putting her phone down.

Will gave her a look that Elizabeth couldn't discern from being mischievous or guilty. He shot her a small grin and said, "Sorry, I didn't mean to."

Elizabeth raised her eyebrows and shot Will a questioning look. With a hint of a teas, she said, "So I take it that my boss has now taken it upon himself to keep himself updated of my whereabouts after work?"

Will turned bright red. "No, no," he quickly answered. "I wasn't doing anything of the sort. I just…saw you still parked in your car and was a little concerned, that's all."

Elizabeth sighed. "My car won't start up. I don't know if something's wrong with the battery or if it's a more serious problem. I guess I'll have to call up the doctor to change my appointment and call up Triple A."

"Or you can let me take care of it."

Elizabeth looked at Will wide-eyed, not entirely sure of what she was hearing.

"Don't worry about your car," Will reassured her as he beckoned Elizabeth to come out of her car. "I'll give you a ride over to the doctor's. Your car will be fixed by tonight."

The confidence in his voice made Elizabeth want to follow him into his car straight away, but a part of her hesitated. She didn't know why Will had made her such a generous offer.

"Come, come," Will said with a soft chuckle, "Unless you plan on pushing this thing to wherever your doctor's office is, you're not going to get anywhere with this broken car."

Concluding that it would be much easier this way, Elizabeth nodded in agreement and stepped out of her car. She figured that having to change her appointment was not worth the trouble of paying the last minute change penalty. She looked to find that Will was already texting away on his phone.

"It's all set then," Will said with a bright smile, "All I need are your keys."

Elizabeth fished them out of her purse and handed them to Will. A moment later, a man in a black suit emerged from the company and approached Will. The two men exchanged a quick conversation and the man was off with Elizabeth's keys. Another minute later, a black Mercedes drove up to them from the parking lot and stopped.

The black tinted windows rolled down, and a well-dressed driver wearing dark shades that made him resemble some sort of federal agent greeted them. Elizabeth stared at the driver in disbelief. Will had a personal chauffeur?

"Thanks, Winston," said Will, "But I'll be driving today. You can take the BMW home."

The driver nodded and stepped out of the car, holding the door open for Will. When Will got in, he went to the other side and did the same for Elizabeth. Will bid his driver goodbye and turned his attention to Elizabeth, who was busy estimating the number of people Will could have possibly staffed for his personal leisure.

"So we're off to your doctor's office," Will said lightheartedly as he buckled up and eased the car forward. "Just give me directions and we'll be on our way."

The car ride was rather quiet, save for the parts where Elizabeth would break the silence to tell Will where to go. Both seemed to be lost in their own thoughts. Elizabeth, for one, occupied herself with looking at the interior of Will's car and marveling at the intricate appearance of his custom designed car. She had never seen any car like it. While most of the car's interior was made out of black leather, a small amount of silver here and there brought out the elegant taste of the car. The dashboard was modern and simple, yet it somehow managed to give a strong feel in its resemblance to a sports car. She studied the car's intricacies carefully, pursing her lips at the thought of her old and worn out car in brutal comparison.

Will, on the other hand, had never felt so nervous while he drove before. His nerves had promptly denied him of his ability to speak, and his hands gripped the steering wheel tightly. Every time he thought of something that could be said, a sidelong glance revealing Elizabeth's beautiful profile and her dark brown hair that fell just a little past her shoulders stopped him dead in his tracks. His eyes would find their way to an exposed area of her slender neck, and he would shake himself off and force himself to concentrate on the traffic. He didn't know what was harder: trying to start a conversation or keeping his eyes off of her. In the end, he only knew that he failed miserably at both.

Elizabeth decided to invite Will to come in with her, for she felt that it would be rude to make him wait in the car. They walked into the room together, and Elizabeth noticed Will immediately glancing around at the decorations.

"These babies are so small," he said softly, with some sort of a reminiscent smile. "It reminds me when Gia was just born," he added softly.

Elizabeth smiled and looked at the same picture he was observing. "Yeah, they look just like when my younger sisters were born, too."

It was a simple, yet powerful moment when both silently bonded over a quaint photograph of a newborn baby sleeping peacefully in his mother's arms. It was a quiet moment as both looked at the picture and thought of different memories, but it was a moment where Elizabeth felt the man standing next to her to be so close, almost as if they were both there for the sake of _their _baby, not hers.

"Elizabeth Bennet," a nurse called through the window.

Elizabeth looked at Will and tugged gently at his elbow. "Okay, that's me," she said, "You don't have to come in if you don't want to."

Will shrugged. "I'll come."

Following behind Elizabeth, Will felt a surge in curiosity. He'd never been to any kind of maternal ward before, and he wondered what procedures Elizabeth had to go through. Probably just a routine ultrasound, he told himself.

"How are you, Miss Bennet?" the doctor greeted as Elizabeth came through the door, though her eyes soon shifted over to the spot where Will was standing.

"Good," Elizabeth answered cheerfully as she made her way to the bed on the other side of the room.

"And are you the father?" Dr. Chase asked with a small smile, looking straight at Will.

Will shuffled uncomfortably at the place where he was standing.

"Oh, he's just a friend accompanying me today," he heard Elizabeth answer casually for him, "Remember what I told you? The father of this baby won't be involved in this process at all."

Dr. Chase glanced quickly between Elizabeth and Will and nodded, figuring that keeping her mouth shut on this particular subject would be the best option. She turned to Will and pointed to a chair by the bed, "You can make yourself comfortable over here if you'd like."

Will nodded timidly and strode across the room and watched the doctor move agilely around in her chair, flipping on machines and getting everything ready. On the bed, Elizabeth lifted her shirt up without being told, as if the action was one of second nature to her, exposing her growing belly. Will tried to dart his eyes away out of politeness, but it was too late and he swore that he saw a little lump that protruded out of her stomach move. Wide-eyed, he quickly looked away and decided to settle his eyes on a birthing chart hanging on a side of the wall instead.

"Everything going okay?" the doctor asked Elizabeth as began the ultrasound routine.

Elizabeth nodded. "The baby's getting bigger by the day," she answered with a small grin, watching the little monitor flicker in black and white, revealing a little human-shaped figure curled up in a ball. Elizabeth smiled. The baby was much bigger in size and much more recognizable than it had been a month ago.

"Yup," Dr. Chase answered with a laugh as she pointed to the screen with her other hand, "There it is!"

At this, Will peeled his eyes off the chart and focused on the monitor. He squinted his eyes at the screen and tried to make out where the baby would be. The doctor was moving the transducer probe over Elizabeth's lower abdomen at a steady speed, checking for any irregularities, and Will was having a hard time locating the baby.

Finally out of frustration and over pending curiosity, Will asked, "Where exactly is the baby?"

Doctor Chase laughed and shook her head in mock disapproval. "You're looking at it!"

Will frowned and squinted his eyes again. "_That_'s what the baby looks like?" he asked with great disbelief, "That squiggly thing with the weird bump in a corner and a long line sticking out of it? _That's_ the baby?"

Elizabeth burst out laughing and decided to keep silent and let Dr. Chase educate the ignorant fool.

"That's _part_ of the baby," Dr. chase said, continuing to move her hand around. "Relax and take a deep breath. Your friend's not going to birth an alien. I'm just checking to see if anything's wrong with the placenta."

Will seemed to relax a little in his seat and continued to watch the screen in a trance. He'd never seen an ultrasound being performed before, and it amazed him to know that the baby growing inside of Elizabeth was actually visible to the outside world.

"Do you want to try?" Dr. Chase asked.

Will snapped his head up, though it took him a brief moment to figure out that the doctor was addressing him.

"Try what?"

"Try using the probe, of course," the doctor replied, offering Will the transducer probe.

"Me?" he asked again, eyes growing wide. He looked at Elizabeth for her reaction.

"Have a go if you'd like," Elizabeth shrugged, "while everyone's poking and probing away on my stomach anyways. I'm used to it."

Hesitantly, Will reached for the probe and took it carefully from the doctor. He gently laid it on Elizabeth's abdomen and ran it in circular motions as he had seen the doctor do it.

"Just a tad bit lower," Dr. Chase instructed as Will hastened to obey her instructions. His eyes never left the monitor and he saw a clear and unmistakable figure of the baby just as the doctor zoomed the image back. That was when he let out a gasp and let a small chuckle escape from his mouth.

"There really is a baby in there," he said with a voice filled with awe, head shaking in wonder.

Elizabeth snorted. "Yeah what'd you think? That I was housing some abnormally large stomach parasite?"

But despite her sarcastic comment, Elizabeth couldn't help but smile along with Will as he traced the probe back and forth, examining and taking in every detail of the baby's image. Just then, an arm moved on the screen and both of them held their breaths.

"What's it doing?" Will asked, immediate concern rising in his voice. "Is it going to be okay?"

Dr. Chase smiled. "Of course it's going to be okay. Just watch."

Elizabeth and Will stared at the monitor, their attention completely devoted to the unborn life moving around on the screen. The baby's arm was now at an angle in the screen, and the tiny little arm was wobbling a little bit back and forth.

Elizabeth gasped in amazement. "The baby is sucking its thumb!"

The doctor nodded as Elizabeth and Will sat in silence, watching the little wonder suck contentedly on its thumb in the comfort of its mother's stomach. A minute later, the baby seemed to have had enough and it shifted its arms out of the way and became a still figure on the screen once more.

"The baby's doing well," Dr. Chance said as she took the probe away from Will and flicked off the machine. "We'll see you next month for your regular checkup."

Elizabeth thanked the doctor and walked out of the room with a very quiet Will by her side. When they walked out of the clinic, she eyed Will carefully and noticed his withdrawn expression.

"You okay?" she asked.

"Yeah," he answered, although his voice seemed a bit distant. What he had seen today was unlike anything he'd ever imagined. That an unborn life would resemble so realistically to an infant seemed impossible to him. It made him wonder why the baby's father had chosen to skip completely out on the entire ordeal. George was missing out, he thought.

Elizabeth scrutinized his face. "Are you sure?"

"It's just…" he began, putting his hands into his pockets, "that I'd never seen such a thing like that before. I mean, I see your stomach and everything, but to see the ultrasound is something completely different. It's just…an experience I've never had before, that's all."

Elizabeth gave Will a wide smile. The tenderness in his voice and the hint of affection he now had for the baby struck her. It was quite something for her to see a man who had seen so much of the world to be rendered so humble so quickly by such a little and simple way in life. The baby wasn't even born yet, and already, it had both of them wrapped around its little finger. She wondered if the baby knew that. And she wondered how many other lives the baby would hold around its finger, and how many years it would take her to forget the little one after it's taken away from her. She knew deep down that try as she might, it was going to take a lifetime.

It didn't take long for Will to notice Elizabeth's reserved quietness and decided to break her thoughts.

"Elizabeth?"

At the sound of her name, Elizabeth looked up to find Will drawing closer to her as they approached his car.

"Thank you for sharing this with me."

And with that, he snaked an arm around her waist, held her as close as he could, and guided her to his car

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	20. The Visit: Part I

Author's note: I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as I had fun writing it. Please review after reading--it will really, really, really times a billion make my day. :D

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Elizabeth and Gia were standing in her office chatting away happily when Will came through the door.

"Hi Will," Gia said as she smiled in her brother's direction.

Will returned the smile and approached them, straightening out his face.

"Slacking off now, are we?" he asked in a mocked tone of seriousness, glancing between the two women. "At the same time holding conversations without me? Now I'm really offended."

Gia laughed. "Who's the one slacking off? You didn't seem to be so keen to finish your own work while you happily yakked away with that cute secretary downstairs."

Will's face dropped and his eyes immediately darted nervously to Elizabeth.

"Talking to _what_ cute secretary?" he immediately demanded, stuttering in his response.

Catching her brother's panicked look at Elizabeth, Gia smirked.

"It was entirely and absolutely done strictly for business," he quickly added, "_She_ was the one who approached me and asked me to help her with a marketing chart. I simply coached her through the process. She's new at it. You should know better than to exaggerate things like that," he scolded disapprovingly at Gia, his voice clearly thick with anxiety.

"Easy there, bro. It was only a joke. No need to give me such a lengthy explanation."

Gia caught her brother's eyes and her eyes shone with mischief.

"Ahh," she said with playful understanding, "I get it. Of course there must be someone else you're so eager to parade around your innocence for."

Will sputtered a cough and turned bright red.

"Drop it, Gia," he warned in a low voice through gritted teeth.

Completely disregarding her brother's demand, Gia leaned towards Will and nudged him in his ribs toward Elizabeth. Will gasped in pain and shot a menacing glare at his sister.

"Well I suppose I will leave you two now and go back to work," Gia grinned, "I think I best not be present should my brother decide to give another speech to defend his virtue."

When she left, Will was still rubbing the spot where his sister had nudged him and Elizabeth was still standing in the room not knowing what to say. Had Will really denied the interaction between him and another girl just for her? She shook off that thought. Will was the type of person to clear his name from blame under any circumstance of misunderstanding anyway.

"How's your workload?" Will asked Elizabeth with a hint of concern in his voice, "Let me know if you've got too much on your plate. I can have someone help you out."

Elizabeth shrugged, "Thanks for asking, but I'm pretty sure I've got everything under control."

Will mumbled something and Elizabeth thought she vaguely made out, "Of course you do."

"Don't forget about your meeting with the Pepsi marking executive early tomorrow morning," Elizabeth remembered as she reminded Will.

Will groaned and rubbed his forehead. "How could I have forgotten," he muttered to himself.

Elizabeth knew exactly what he was stressed about. It was never easy having both Coca-Cola and Pepsi as clients. The two had been rivals since the invention of carbonated drinks.

"I can't believe Sean accepted to advertise them while I was busy working on a court case," he said with a frown, "Now look what we have here. How are we supposed to cater to both companies and market them equally when both are aiming directly at each other's heads?"

Elizabeth shrugged. "He thought it would be fun to go back and forth between meetings where Coca-Cola proposed commercials of bulldozers trampling a heap Pepsi cans while Pepsi voted to advertise Coca-Cola as some sort of corrosive toilet cleaner."

"His entertainment, my pain," Will grumbled, "When Sean gets back next week, I'm going to set this straight with him."

Elizabeth nodded. She hadn't seen Sean for a few months now, and was looking forward to catching up with him. She missed having him to joke around with during work.

An uneasy silence settled between them, and Elizabeth wondered if it was because her grin had been too wide when Will mentioned Sean's return.

"So," Will started, looking at Elizabeth in a strangely timid way, "It's Friday."

Elizabeth laughed nervously, eyeing Will carefully.

"Yeah," she responded, "Just like it says on my calendar," she finished, pointing at the planner that sat on her desk.

"And the weekend's coming up," Will continued.

"Yeah," Elizabeth answered, "I'm looking forward to that."

"And so tomorrow's Saturday," Will ventured again.

"Yes," Elizabeth replied slowly, "As far as I know." She slightly frowned and wondered what Will was trying to tell her.

"And after Saturday would be—"

"Sunday!" Gia exclaimed, popping her head back through the door, as she cut off her startled brother in mid speech.

Elizabeth had a sneaking suspicion that Gia had been eavesdropping the entire time.

"Glad to see that you've learned something from Kindergarten, William, but really?" Gia threw Will and impatient look.

"_What are you doing?_" Will mouthed to his sister with a frown before turning his attention back to Elizabeth.

Gia crossed her arms. "I would like to ask you the exact same question."

Elizabeth, quite confused by now, was standing silently in the corner of the room, looking back and forth at both siblings who seemed to be fuming over the same problem.

"Well if you hadn't intruded, I would have gotten to my point and you would have gotten your answer," Will snapped back in exasperation.

Elizabeth frowned. She had never seen Will lose his patience with Gia. It had always been playful bickering between them. But this time, he seemed clearly stressed from whatever was bothering him.

Will groaned and looked at Elizabeth. His temper soon faded when he saw her, though his facial expression had rearranged back to the nervous look that had originally occupied his face.

"Well," Will began, his voice much softer now, "I was wondering if—"

Elizabeth met Will's eyes and looked at him expectantly.

Will cleared his throat. "—You knew that a snail could sleep for three years straight?"

Gia smacked her forehead and her eyes bulged widely at her brother in disbelief, making a funny face that made Elizabeth fight back the urge to laugh.

"No, I did not know that a snail could sleep for three years, but I do know that 6% of men propose over the phone and that at the rate you're progressing, you might just be one of them," Gia retorted.

Turning to Elizabeth, she rolled her eyes. "My daring brother over here would love to have you over for dinner tomorrow night at his house if you are free."

She put her hands on her hips and shot a look at her brother. "Now was that so hard?"

"Thanks for blurting it out," Will muttered before quickly looking to Elizabeth hopefully for her answer.

It took but a second for Elizabeth to make up her mind. So that was what this had been all about She flashed a wide grin. "I would love to. Thanks for inviting me," she said, shyly casting a side-glance at Will.

Before Will could respond, Gia offered enthusiastically, "I'll pick you up at your place at five-thirty. Will's house is hard to find. The hermit prefers to live away from civilization."

Elizabeth nodded and tried to hide the grin on her face that felt impossibly difficult to remove.

"All right, so I'll see you guys tomorrow, then," Elizabeth said as she grabbed her purse and a couple of loose folders.

She gave them both a wave too giddy for her own liking and half dashed out the door. Her heart pounded in excitement and she wondered for a split second if all the racing effects Will had on her body would be dangerous for the baby.

As soon as she was out of the building, she pulled out her cell phone and started dialing as fast as she could.

"Charlotte?" She asked as soon as her friend had picked up. "I have an emergency."

"What?" Charlotte asked in a panicked voice, speaking as quickly as she could. "What's wrong? Is something wrong with the baby? Are you all right? Do you need me to drive you to the hospital?"

"No," Elizabeth groaned. "Not _that_ kind of emergency."

There was a pause and Elizabeth could hear Charlotte's confusion through the silence.

"Will Darcy just asked me out to dinner at his house tomorrow night."

It took but a second for Charlotte to explode on the other line, causing Elizabeth to have no choice but hold the phone a foot away to protect her ears from her friend's piercing scream.

"I told you!" she yelped, and from the distance, Elizabeth could hear pattering foot and she guessed that Charlotte was jumping up and down fervently wherever she was.

"I told you he was in love with you!" she said triumphantly, "And just the other day you said you'd bet that asking you out would be the last thing on his mind. You owe me three billion dollars, genius."

"Okay well technically speaking, he didn't ask me out. Gia did," Elizabeth answered, as she proceeded to explain everything that had happened in the last twenty minutes.

"Imagine what would happen if you ended up with him!" Charlotte exclaimed, "I'd be so jealous of you and your house full of beautiful babies."

"A house full of _what_?"

"You heard me. Beautiful babies. It's something I know I'll never have," Charlotte sighed, dampening the mood. "It's supposed to be a surprise, but I guess I'll tell you anyway if you promise to pretend like you didn't know."

"Yeah?" Elizabeth asked, eagerly anticipating what Charlotte had been trying so hard to keep secret.

"I'm engaged to William Collins."

Elizabeth froze. She didn't quite know what to think or do. Her first reaction told her to gag. Her second reaction told her to laugh. Her third instinct told her to ask Charlotte what had gone wrong with her brain. She chose to follow the last.

"Are you mad?" Elizabeth exclaimed, her eyes widening in horror. "Aren't you rushing into this a bit too quickly? That man is absurd."

"Lizzy," Charlotte's heavy voice came, "I know that William can be a bit offbeat and socially awkward sometimes, but you know, he's not too bad in some ways. All my life, I've just wanted to get married and settle down, you know? And I'm not about to pass my first and mostly likely only opportunity up."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "Three billion men are out there, Charlotte Lucas, and you choose to settle with this one?"

Charlotte sighed. "Lizzy, the world is not all it seems. Do you know how hard it is for a person like me to find someone? I'm not like you, Liz. I can't just throw myself out there and have people come looking for me and wanting to be with me. I'm not lucky like you. The Will Darcys out there just aren't cut out for me."

"Charlotte, please think it over," Elizabeth begged, still finding it incredibly hard to believe that her friend would ever agree to a proposal to a man as ridiculous as Collins.

A silence came over the phone.

"You can have beautiful babies," Elizabeth cooed in a singsong manner on the other line.

Charlotte groaned. "I have already thought it a million times over. This is right for me, Elizabeth. Please just let it be."

Not knowing what else to say, Elizabeth softly said, "Congratulations, Char."

It was not at all the phone call she had expected, and Elizabeth felt her own mood drop considerably after hanging up. It was one thing to give yourself away easily, and another thing to fully lose hope of everything that you're capable of doing. Elizabeth sighed and felt sorry for what Charlotte couldn't see in herself. It was the plain and obvious truth that Charlotte could have done way better than what she was content to accept.

---

Saturday evening rolled around much too quickly for Elizabeth's liking. She had longed for the moment to come, but at the same time wanted to run away from time itself when the clock struck five-thirty and a sharp knock on the door sent a jolt of panic down her body.

She had spent a good half a day deciding what to wear. She had no idea if she was supposed to be casual, fancy, or half of both. Neither Gia nor Will had mentioned anything about dressing attire. She finally chose a dark blue dress that cut a little above her knees, set with delicate rhinestones around the plunging neckline that added elegance to an otherwise simple design. It was chic and casual at the same time.

"Lizzy, you look amazing!" Gia exclaimed as she greeted Elizabeth at her house.

"Thanks," Elizabeth answered with a smile as she turned around to lock her door.

Elizabeth climbed into Gia's car and slid into the front seat. This was it, she thought to herself. She was on her way to Will's house. Along the way, Elizabeth made some small talk with Gia, though she was much too nervous to pay attention to anything else that was present. Her mind was set entirely on how the night ahead of her was going to turn out, and her insides knotted at the thought of anything going catastrophically wrong.

They were now driving into more mountainous terrain of Beverly Hills and Elizabeth soon lost track of the many rights and lefts Gia made. The road never seemed to stay in a straight line and the curvy turns the car kept taking only made Elizabeth's stomach queasier. Finally, Gia stopped in front of a tall handsome black gate surrounded by climbing vines that had tangled itself around the entryway, giving the driveway an old European feel.

Elizabeth squinted her eyes and looked for the house, but only saw a long and winding driveway beyond the gate. Large trees stood on either side of the road, enveloping it with generous shade. The freshly cut lawn on either side of the road stretched out into the distance.

To the left of the car was a guard station with a security guard that Elizabeth had almost failed to notice had Gia not been talking happily with him. Her eyes widened in surprise. Will had personally hired a guard to inquire after visitors? She smiled to herself and felt sorry for the guard. Will was not the type of person to invite many people over. She understood then why Gia had taken the time to talk to him. The poor guard must have been very much socially deprived.

Gia rolled up her window after waving to the guard and slowly eased the car forward as the extravagant gates parted to let them in. Although the house was not as far in as it seemed from the gates, the tall trees covering the view of the house made it hard to see from afar. It was until they had pulled up right in front of the house did Elizabeth gasp at the grandiosity of the building.

Much like a French chateau, the house looked like a modernized castle. In front of the large house was a sprawling lawn with an intricate Victorian-styled fountain placed in the middle. It took Elizabeth a long while for everything around her to settle. The entire place looked like somewhere that could only come from a fairy tale.

"And here we are," Gia said, parking the car to a stop. "It's beautiful here, isn't it?"

Elizabeth only nodded, too speechless for words.

She opened the car door and stepped out before turning around and looking at Gia in confusion.

"Aren't you coming?" she asked, holding the passenger door open.

Gia gave Elizabeth a huge grin and shook her head. "Nope. Keith and I are off to a dinner date. So it'll just be you and my brother for dinner tonight."

Elizabeth stared at Gia, not knowing what to think. She had been assuming all along that Gia was going to join them for dinner. After all, it was Gia who had picked her up at her house.

A chill went down Elizabeth's back. She had not planned or even came close to expecting to spend the evening at Will's house with him alone.

Sensing Elizabeth's hesitant behavior, she gave her an encouraging smile, "Don't worry, Will promised to be nice."

She sighed, nervously wringed her hands and watched Gia drive down the runway. A new wave of courage swooped over her as she climbed the steps to his door, and she was determined to make the most out of that night.


	21. The Visit: Part II

Author's Note: I know it's been nearly three years since this story was last updated. I was going through my computer the other day and stumbled upon this file. The chapter was only half written, but I decided to finish it anyway. It was the least I could do before I decided to post it just in case anyone out there still following this story might be curious to read a little more for old time's sake. Not entirely sure yet whether or not I will finish the story. If enough people are interested, I will definitely consider it as a possibility. Life's winding down a bit for me now, and I just might have some time on my hands this summer to write before graduate school ensues. Drop a review and let me know! As always, I hope you enjoy the chapter.

* * *

The large walnut colored door swung open before her, and Elizabeth gasped in surprise. She had not even raised her hand to ring the doorbell yet and was already greeted by a formally dressed man with gray hair who was roughly in his sixties. She soon realized that it was not Will who had opened the door, but his butler.

"Welcome, Miss Bennet." The butler politely nodded as he merrily greeted Elizabeth with a friendly twinkle in his eyes, "I hope I haven't startled you by opening the door so swiftly. Mr. Darcy did remind me many times to keep a close eye for the arrival of his guest."

"Not at all, sir," Elizabeth said with a hasty nod as her attention was quickly diverted after she stepped into the monumental house.

The ceiling of the entry was high and spacious, as it elongated the circular room and added to its grandeur air of elegant beauty. In the middle of the dome shaped ceiling hung a crystal chandelier that cascaded its way down in a spiral pattern. Its glittering shards caught the light in different angles as they danced to the cool evening breeze ushered through the door.

As the butler drew the door gently to a close, Elizabeth found a strong furry force slam into her. Before she could turn around to see what had run into her, she felt her hand grow moist with slobber. With its paws on her waist, a large German shepherd had decided to introduce himself with multiple licks all over Elizabeth's hand. Elizabeth grinned at the dog and petted its head.

"Koda!" A disapproving voice nearing the entry room rang.

At the sound of his master's voice, the dog immediately let go of Elizabeth and succinctly dropped to the floor, its eyes looking intently toward the direction of the approaching footsteps. Its ears perked up and it immediately sat obediently, as if it knew that its behavior warranted some form of punishment.

"I'm so sorry, Elizabeth, please excuse—"

"I didn't know you had a dog!" Elizabeth exclaimed, her eyes still settled wondrously on the dog that had so warmly greeted her.

Will scratched his head and looked slightly embarrassed. "Sorry, you would think he would have been trained with better manners by now," he explained, nodding at the dog.

"Better trained? If you ask me, I'd say he's made a quite charming first impression," Elizabeth said before dropping her voice to a low mutter, "a charmer quite unlike his owner at first glance."

Will winced at Elizabeth's comment. He remembered how taciturn and unlikable he had first come off to Elizabeth. However, he quickly shoved aside the unpleasant memory and shrugged.

"In my defense, I didn't know you liked to be greeted by slobber and drool," he said, "or I would have brought Koda along to do that job for me in the first place. "

"Oh, Koda? That's his name?" Elizabeth exclaimed as she turned over to give her attention to the dog once more. Elizabeth always had a soft spot for dogs. "Well, aren't you a handsome dog," she remarked fondly as Koda enthusiastically wagged his tail.

"Of course," Will said with a snort, "don't you know by now that dogs take after their owners?"

Elizabeth turned to shoot a mock glance of disapproval at Will. She rolled her eyes and suppressed a smile before continuing to scratch behind the dog's ears.

The butler who had been standing by the door this whole time now cleared his throat. "Ms. Bennet," he said as he bowed, "please allow me to escort you to the dining room where dinner awaits."

Will nodded and signaled for Elizabeth to follow. Elizabeth had almost forgotten about the butler who was in the room. She uncomfortably trailed behind the butler and struggled to fit in with the formality of having Will's staff in the house. She didn't think she would ever be able to live Will's lifestyle, constantly having people watch her every move even at home. Even though the staff was obviously hired to make Will's life more convenient, she shuddered at the thought of having people who were not her part of her family lingering around her house. She would surely be suffocated in the prim and proper atmosphere shrouding the mansion.

A couple sharp turns in the halls and a few quick peeks into several ornately decorated sitting rooms later, Elizabeth found herself in an elaborate dining room. The white marbled floors shone against the bright yellow lighting, and heavy cream-colored drapes adorned a large arched window across the room. A long, chestnut wooden table stood in the center of the room. At a closer glance, Elizabeth noticed the intricate carving that decorated the legs of the table, and her eyes traced the swirls and twirls of the complex patterns.

"Please, Miss Bennet," the butler said as he pulled out a chair on the other end of the table for her.

Elizabeth's head snapped up and she spotted the waiter pulling out a chair on the far side of the room at the other end of the table. After Will was seated across from her, the waiter bowed out graciously and promised to return with their meals.

"Well this is certainly something new," Elizabeth steadily observed, glancing around at the rather empty and large dining room around her. "Do you always eat with a party of one at a dinner table set for twelve?"

"No," Will said defensively, as if Elizabeth's comment had struck a deep chord in his bachelorhood that he was ashamed of. "Koda and I usually eat elsewhere."

Elizabeth raised her eyebrows.

"So you eat with your dog every night," she said as she stared at Will, trying to keep a straight face.

Will crossed his arms. "There's nothing wrong with that," he said with a purse of his lips. "It's not like I eat his food."

"Why don't you eat with your butler? I'm sure you have other staff around the house as well," Elizabeth said thoughtfully. "Any company is better than none."

Will's eyes widened as if Elizabeth had said something completely imaginable.

"Eat with Mr. Timmons? I can't eat with my butler," Will sputtered, his face now cast with a slight frown.

Elizabeth returned his frown with another. "And why ever not?"

"Because that's totally improper!" Will exclaimed. "Mr. Timmons has his own quarters where he eats at."

Elizabeth threw a quizzical look at Will from across the table. Even though Will's pride was much softer than when she first met him and his personality much more approachable, it was clear that he was still firmly planted in his aristocratic roots.

Taking a heavy sigh, Elizabeth threw her arms into the air, "That's what I don't get about you rich people. Don't you ever get tired of the formality that goes around the house?"

Will's face now contorted not into a look of anger, but into one of sheer confusion. He could not imagine why anyone would want to dine with his or her house staff.

"Mr. Timmons is a man just like you with friends and family," Elizabeth continued on, "Koda's quite the companion and all, but he's no human being."

Will wondered why the presence of a mere butler made Elizabeth so uncomfortable. All his life, this was all he had ever known—to be waited on hand and foot by someone else. His parents had taught him that this was the way, a privilege of the wealthy that everyone else in the world sought after but only few attained.

"I guess I just don't see Mr. Timmons as someone more than an acquaintance." Will answered with a softer voice, "Growing up, we were constantly switching staff and butlers. In fact, Mr. Timmons just started working for me two months ago, and I don't really know him. I never got close to those working in my house. I view them more like employees and less as friends."

"But I'm your employee and we're friends, are we not?" she argued with half a smile.

"Yeah, but that's completely different," Will immediately retorted before dropping his voice. "You're different."

Elizabeth's eyes softened before giving Will a more encouraging look as she replied, "Maybe that's what you need to learn. You should see your employees a little less like workers. I mean—don't get me wrong—there are definitely boundaries in the work place, but you shouldn't be so quick to cross them off your list of friends."

She eyed Will with an understanding face. She knew that they had both came from completely different family backgrounds. She had never had a chauffeur, butler, or even a maid growing up, and experiencing Will's style of living was certainly something strange and foreign to her.

Before Will could respond, Mr. Timmons appeared in the room again with another terse bow as he held a silver platter and set it gingerly in front of Elizabeth. Elizabeth eyed the platter with curiosity and wondered who in the twenty first century still ate dinner served so properly like that every night. She watched as he reached down with his hand to unearth the platter and reveal the contents of her dinner. But as soon as the lid of the platter was lifted in the very slightest, Elizabeth uncontrollably gagged at the smell of what was underneath.

The gag reflex was unlike anything she had ever felt before. She cringed at the smell and her eyes bulged from the overwhelming odor. Lobster—that was what it was. She had identified the scent in one whiff. Without warning, she felt her stomach lurch and she turned her head away from the table. Elizabeth groaned and wondered why her heightened sense of smell in her pregnancy had to work against her now of all days.

Will hastily stood up in alarm and rushed to Elizabeth's side, as the butler quickly covered the food up again with a loud clang. Elizabeth fumbled from her seat and stood up, bending over slightly to catch her breath.

"Sorry," she gasped, "Smell—unpleasant—makes me want to—sorry—I'm fine."

The two men in the room exchanged confused looks for a fleeting moment before Will signaled for the butler to take away the silver platters. As he waited for Elizabeth to recompose herself, his felt a nervous flutter in his stomach.

Had it really been so that long since his last guest that he had forgotten how to properly plan an appetizing dinner menu? He had thought that lobster soup would be a most appropriate way to begin the dinner. It certainly was one of his favorites.

"I'm so sorry," said Elizabeth, with the color now slowly returning to her face.

Will wondered why Elizabeth was apologizing when it was obvious that he had been the on who had fallen short of his hosting duties. "Don't be," he quickly reassured her, "I should have asked you what you preferred to eat beforehand. This matter is completely my fault. Please accept my apology for what my lack of consideration."

Elizabeth lifted an eyebrow and stared at Will. _'So Will thinks it's his fault that I disliked the food he ordered the chef to put on my plate,'_ she mused to herself.

Flustered and red in the face, Will quickly added, "I totally understand why you don't like lobster. The creature is absurd—bright red, scaly, long antennas, fat claws that totally outsize the proportion of its head—I can't believe I almost made you eat such a thing. My apologies—"

Elizabeth laughed before Will could even finish his panicked sentence.

"You obviously don't know a thing about pregnant women," she teased with a wide grin.

Will stared at Elizabeth. "Your baby dislikes lobster?" he questioned with wide eyes, surprised that an unborn being can be such a picky eater.

"No, no," Elizabeth answered as she shook her head, "Pregnant women have a heightened sense of smell. Sometimes, certain things just don't appeal to us for some reason."

Elizabeth thought back to just two weeks ago when the smell of her favorite dinner at a particular restaurant sent her swiftly running to the bathroom.

Still not quite exactly understanding what Elizabeth was saying, Will gave her a slow nod. He had heard accounts of pregnant women behaving oddly before, but decided against questioning it.

"So what are you in the mood for?" he asked hurriedly, sensing that she must be very hungry by now. "I could ask the chef for filet mignon? Do you like scallops? Foie gras?"

Elizabeth thoughtfully stroke her chin before giving Will a wide grin.

"Can I have some spaghetti?"

Will stared at her as if she had asked for something completely outlandish. All this time he had been planning for a fancy dinner to impress her, and she just wanted pasta.

"That's it?" he asked, eyeing her skeptically. "Of all things out there to eat, you just want a plate of pasta?"

"Two," Elizabeth corrected with a show of her fingers as she gave a hearty nod. "I'm starving," she said as she patted her stomach.

"All right, let me get my butler to ask the chef for some then," Will said with good humor.

Elizabeth scrunched her nose. "You're going to ask your chef to whip us up something as simple as spaghetti?"

Will shrugged. "That's what I hired him for," he replied with nonchalance. In fact, he couldn't even remember when he had last stepped into the kitchen.

"Then let's give the poor guy the night off," Elizabeth answered, "It's so simple, we can make it ourselves."

Will cringed. He was never quite the cook. Growing up in a family as wealthy as his, such was never the necessity. He distinctively recalled losing a card game in college and had the honor of making everyone breakfast the next day. Five omelets and innumerous bites full of eggshells later, he had become the laughing stock of his dormitory. That was the last time Fitzwilliam Darcy ever cooked again.

"I—err—I don't really belong in a kitchen," Will said with his head bowed as he awkwardly shuffled his feet and wringed his hands nervously.

"That's preposterous!" Elizabeth exclaimed as she crossed her arms, "How can anyone not belong in a room of his own house?"

Will remained silent and gave Elizabeth an uncertain look. Without another thought, Elizabeth pushed Will towards the doorway and groaned.

"Goodness Will, am I going to have to drag you all the way there?"

Will sighed and threw up his hands as his eyes met Elizabeth's. "You're really stubborn, did you know that?"

"Me, stubborn?" asked Elizabeth with an innocent voice as she feigned a surprised look. "Who's the one refusing to step foot into his own kitchen?"

Will cracked a smile. "Well, who goes into another person's house and insists on making her own dinner on a date?"

It took all but a second for Elizabeth to turn red in the face. The word "date" had struck a feeling in her that she did not exactly recognize. What she thought about dinner at Will's tonight was debatable. Even though the possibility of them being on a date tonight could not be denied, she had only let herself think that it was casual dinner between two good friends spurred on by an eager matchmaker. Technically speaking, Gia and her husband were supposed to be there with her anwyays.

Elizabeth recomposed herself and decided not to dwell on the thought. She couldn't be dating—not during a divorce—and most certainly not while she was pregnant.

"So, where is your kitchen? I would find it myself, but getting lost in a place such as this would be rather problematic," she said playfully to Will.

Will turned and signaled for Elizabeth to follow him. When they arrived in the kitchen, Elizabeth's eyes were immediately distracted by the rows of cabinets that spread out across the room.

"This is the cook's kitchen," Will quickly explained, "Sorry if it's not very pleasing to the eye. The one that actually looks decent we never use."

At the sound of Will's voice, a plump man with a mustache exited from a nearby pantry and nervously strode over to his superior. The chef then offered a profuse apology over dinner before Elizabeth explained the situation to him and Will dismissed him for the night.

After the chef left, Elizabeth took one good look around the kitchen and gaped at Will. The kitchen looked like the kind one would find in a large restaurant.

"Are you expected to feed a village with a kitchen like this?"

Will shrugged. "Not that I know of. It came with the house."

The wooden cabinets of the kitchen had glass coverings that made their contents visible. Every cabinet was readily stocked with spices and ingredients.

"All this for one person," Elizabeth muttered to herself. The amount of food in Will's kitchen ought to be blamed for world hunger. Elizabeth could not imagine why one person would need so much and use so little.

"I'm hungry," Will complained as he regretted letting the cook go so soon.

"Then let's get started!" Elizabeth said with a bright smile, "Where are your pots and pans?"

Will groaned. "I don't know where anything is in here," he said as he tried to hide his annoyance with himself, "I don't ever come here."

"Well then," Elizabeth said as she crossed her hands on her hips, "it's never too late too learn."

"You grab the pots and I'll try to see if I can find the ingredients," Elizabeth said, already opening several cabinets to locate what she needed.

It took a good fifteen minutes for Elizabeth to locate the things that she needed. Will, however, was nowhere to be seen.

With a sigh, Elizabeth called out, "Will Darcy, have you lost yourself in your own home?"

Immediately, a clatter of pots and pans was heard, and Will stumbled out of a cupboard.

"Here you go," he said triumphantly as he handed Elizabeth his prized discovery. "We may commence the cooking now," he finished with confidence.

Elizabeth gave him a dubious look. "A skillet?" she asked with a lifted eyebrow, "You intend on boiling water in a skillet?"

Realization struck Will as he murmured a curse under his breath, silently berating himself for clearly not thinking.

"Sorry," he muttered, "I'll go get you another."

As Will retreated back into the cupboard, Elizabeth smirked to herself while she opened the package of spaghetti and sliced the fresh rosemary for seasoning. When she was done, she put the ingredients neatly a pile and drummed her fingers on the counter as she waited for Will.

In the small storage room, Will was rather pleased with himself. The skillet obviously wasn't deep enough to boil water, but this pan surely was. He pulled out the pan and decided to go surprise Elizabeth with his second attempt at helping.

Out of the corner of her eyes, Elizabeth saw Will tuck something rather large behind his back.

"Put that back, Will," she said. "Don't even think about it."

"Wha—why? This is what you're looking for, isn't it?" he asked confusedly as he pulled out the pan from behind his back.

Elizabeth rolled her eyes. When she spoke, her tone was monotonous.

"A wok? Are you going to make me some stir-fry?"

"Oops," Will answered, his eyes downcast.

Shaking her head hopelessly, she took the wok from Will's hands. "You can learn another day. For now, go sit over there while I finish making the food. At the rate you're progressing, we should be aiming for breakfast instead."

Will took a seat from a stool across the room, propping his elbow on the table as he watched Elizabeth bustle about. She was a wonder to behold in the kitchen, moving to and fro with well-rehearsed actions, humming as she cooked. Before he knew it, a deliciously smelling plate was under his nose.

"Dinner is served," Elizabeth announced as she plopped down next to Will with satisfaction.

Before she even lifted a fork to her mouth, she saw that Will was already wolfing down his food.

"You eat like a vacuum cleaner," she observed as Will had already scraped half of his plate clean in a matter of minutes.

Will looked up, clearly embarrassed as he wiped his mouth with a napkin.

"Sorry, I was starving," he said, twirling more spaghetti onto his fork. "You're an amazing cook!"

"It's just pasta," Elizabeth said, "spaghetti is hardly a good judge of anyone's cooking. Actually, I'm probably the worst cook in my family."

"You're kidding," Will said, "have you met me?"

Elizabeth laughed, "Making a simple dish is not that hard. You should try learning."

Will shrugged and his eyes caught the glimmer in Elizabeth's as she laughed.

"If I ever want to set my kitchen on fire, I'll consider it."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes, and the two continued to chat as the rest of the spaghetti on their plates disappeared. After they had eaten, Elizabeth scooted off her stool and took Will's plate.

A hand gently touched her arm and took the plates from her.

"You did the cooking, I'll do the washing," Will said as he walked over to the sink to turn on the water.

"What a gentleman," Elizabeth teased as her lips quirked to reveal a slight smile. She was a little surprised that he hadn't called a member of his staff to come and do it for him.

Elizabeth followed him to the sink and stood next to him as she began to clear the counter. She put away the rest of the unused ingredients and set out to wiping the counter clean. Out of the middle of nowhere, a puddle of water splashed onto her the right side of her face, drenching half of her hair. When she turned to see what had happened, she saw a very mortified Will looking back at her.

"I am so—incredibly—sorry!" Will yelped as he hurriedly reached to turn off the water.

Elizabeth fought back a laugh upon seeing Will's wide-eyed expression.

"I just was trying to get a better angle to wash off the marinara sauce so I tried to use this hose-like thing, and I had no idea this thing would explode all over you."

"It's fine," Elizabeth said. "Stop panicking. Water dries off, you know."

Will stared at Elizabeth, looking as though he would never forgive himself.

"Please excuse me."

Will swept from the room and Elizabeth wondered why had had left in such a hurry. Elizabeth decided not to chase after him, but frowned in confusion. It was such an innocent accident and she wondered why he took it so heavily. She sighed and continued washing the dishes where Will had left off.

A minute later, she felt a familiar body come up behind her as something gently dabbed her face. Elizabeth held her breath, turned off the water, and slowly turned around. She found herself face to face with Will, as he gently dried where the water had splashed. His eyes were focused upon Elizabeth's wet hair, and Elizabeth looked at him in wonder, pondering why he hadn't just handed her the towel to dry her own hair instead. When he was done, his eyes trailed down to meet Elizabeth's, and both held each other's gaze for a long moment.

Elizabeth broke the eye contact and shyly glanced to the side.

"You didn't have to," she whispered. "I could have dried off myself."

Will chuckled and brushed a stray strand of hair out of Elizabeth's face.

"I wanted to."

Elizabeth felt her stomach lurch. Not like before with the nauseating smell of lobster, but in an enticingly pleasant way. She remembered this feeling—she had felt it once upon a time with George.

_George_. She stopped dead in her tracks and drew away from Will. She wasn't about to let her feelings run away with another man. A man named Will Darcy washes some dishes for her and she goes weak at the knees?

'_You are much too weak, Elizabeth,'_ she thought to herself in reprimand.

At Elizabeth's sudden withdrawal, Will tensed and averted his gaze. He sensed that she was apprehensive about something, but was too scared to press her with his question. And yet, something that he had wanted to ask her for a long time now gnawed at his mind and nothing he did could keep that thought at bay. He closed his eyes, took a heavy breath, and spoke with a soft voice that took all of his effort to steady.

"Elizabeth, will you go out with me?" he asked, holding his breath as his eyes searched hers for an answer.

It took her while to process his question, and when she did, she felt her skin tingle with goose bumps. Noticing her silent reaction, Will continued hastily onward.

"I know that this is hardly a way to ask a woman out. I had you cook a dinner I was supposed to plan, and allowed you wash dishes that were mine to do," Will started, "I ought to have taken you out to a suitable place—somewhere where you were the focus of the night—as I had originally intended it to be."

Elizabeth stared blankly at Will, not know what to say. His words sounded blurred to her, and her heart pounding loudly in her chest made it even harder for her to concentrate.

"I should be the one apologizing," Elizabeth managed to get out, "I messed up your dinner plans."

"No, don't be sorry. This is exactly what I admire about you," Will said. "You embrace simplicity and make do without complexity. How many women out there would be okay with eating a plate of spaghetti on a date?"

Elizabeth wearily massaged the temple of her head and sighed.

"This wasn't supposed to be a date. Nobody told me, or I wouldn't have come."

Will closed his eyes. The worst had come. Perhaps he was wrong, and Elizabeth was not interested in him after all.

"I'm sorry that it had to be through Gia that any of this was possible," he said with in a troubled tone. "You know I was never any good with words. I wanted to make my intentions clear about tonight myself. I just couldn't get the right words out of my mouth. Sometimes, it's just hard for me to speak with you."

Elizabeth lifted a brow. "You speak fine with other people as you do in court. Do I intimidate you?"

Will shook his head. "You have no idea," he said with a grim smile. "Never have I felt the nervousness and anxiety that comes to me when I speak to you." He threw up his hands in defeat. "I admit it—deep down, I am a total coward when it comes to things like this."

Will gently drew closer to Elizabeth. "But you must know that I behave the way I do because I'm afraid to lose you."

Elizabeth stared behind Will and avoided his gaze. She knew that she had developed feelings for this man within the last couple of months, but she never saw her feelings coming into fruition. Her feelings with Will were supposed to be kept in the dark, not exposed. She never really even seriously thought about the possibility of them being together. It was too soon after the divorce, and a part of her still ached over the failed relationship.

"You can't lose something you've never had, "Elizabeth whispered. "We should keep it that way because I know what it is like to truly lose somebody."

Will's gaze was firm when he found Elizabeth's eyes again.

"I know you are apprehensive about starting something new," Will said as he placed a hand on Elizabeth's shoulder. "I completely understand. But I must let you know that I very rarely allow myself to hope. However in this case, I found myself defying my better judgment, daringly hoping that you would be open to starting something with me. It may be completely inappropriate for me to even ask you that question, but my mind would not let me rest until I did."

Elizabeth's shoulder burned where Will had placed his hand, and she awkwardly shrugged it off.

Eyes downcast, she replied, "I don't know what to say."

"I don't expect you to know what to say, or answer me right away," Will said quietly. "But if you could keep my proposition on your mind and think about it, I shall be content."

"The last time I followed my feelings and disregarded my logic, I ended up in a disastrous marriage," Elizabeth said with a sad look on her face. "I vowed to myself that I would never do the same again."

Will's eyes turned stony and cold at the reminder of what George had done to Elizabeth. He completely understood why Elizabeth was so hesitant on lending her trust. If he were in her position, he would do exactly the same.

"We have grown much closer to each other within last couple of months, Will," Elizabeth said. "There's no denying that. However, whether or not our relationship constitutes as a mere friendship or something more is what I cannot tell you just yet. I'll have to think about it."

Will let out a small sigh of relief. At least she didn't completely reject him. If there was still time for her to think, there was definitely enough time for him to convince her that the prospect of them being together was worth pursuing.

"Thank you for a charming night, Mr. Darcy."

"The pleasure was all mine," Will answered as he led Elizabeth out of the kitchen to his front door.


End file.
